Through Time and Space
by BadgerWolf97
Summary: Siblings Violet and Vincent were given a task long ago, and now the time has finally arrived. However, they find themselves entangled in the missions of Sonic, Shadow, and Silver as the two are searching for the beasts they had set out to capture.
1. Prologue

**So, this is the prologue of a story that is based off of that game known commonly as Sonic 06. The game was terrible, lol, but I always thought it had so much potential and I really like the character Mephiles. Also, despite being titled "Sonic the Hedgehog" the story mainly revolved around Shadow and Silver. Anyways, I made two characters with their own story but wanted to introduce them in a story heavily based on 06's story. Eventually, probably after this one, I'll have a completely unique story with these characters that will explore these two's past. An FYI: unlike the game 06, I will NOT be having any romantic thing between Elise and Sonic because I think that's weird. Just saying.**

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Two wolf siblings sat chatting on the shore. Before them was a sparkling ocean, as far as the eye could see. Behind them was a tall cliff that rose up to watch the horizon.

It had been several days since they had left what was once their home. They knew they had to leave, but they were hesitant. Where would they go?

"Ahh, there you are!" a very pleased voice caught their attention.

They stood up quickly and turned to find the culprit. "Urah!" the older sibling grinned and they ran over to meet her.

Urah was quite elderly. She was a gray and white wolf that hunched over with age and leaned heavily on the strange wooden staff she carried. She wore a purple cloak that hid her scrawny body, and a large necklace of bones and jewels hung from her neck.

"You're alive!"

"Are their any other survivors?" the younger sibling asked.

Urah shook her head sadly. "Only us three, my dears. But do not let their sacrifices be in vain. You brother and sister now have within you what they died to protect. Now then, I have something for both of you." She reached within her cloak and produced two necklaces. Each held a single clear stone. "One for each of you."

They each took a necklace and examined it. "Thank you Urah," the younger sister said.

"Do you like?"

They nodded.

"Good," Urah smiled. "These are very important."

"What are they?" the older brother tied his around his neck.

"Very important." Urah nodded then took on a more serious look. "For now, they exist, but in years to come they will serve a serious role. I will tell you what they are for and where you must go. By the time you finally reach your destination the events will begin to unfold. It will take time, but now all you have is time, yes?"

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**Yup, that's it. Just a little prologue. Btw, Urah is pronounced You - Raa. She'll come back into play WAY later.**


	2. Chapter 1: The Start

**I realize that it has been an extremely long time since I uploaded a chapter for that FNAF story. I will also be working on that one again.**

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Sirens howled loudly through the cold night air as spotlights searched madly for the intruder. A large horde of robots stomped through the snow as they moved to guard the fortress wall. Sensing a motion amongst the snowy forest, they took aim and began shooting bullets from their machinegun arms, but the thing they were shooting at was too quick.

The black, red-striped creature zigzagged its way through the bullets and went straight through the horde. A trail of malfunctioning robots marked its path through. It stopped and jumped onto the head of one of the robots then sprung from it up and over the wall in one quick motion.

On the other side, it stepped into the shadow of a building to avoid one of the searchlights. It looked at its wrist as the communicator beeped. "Incoming transmission… We've received more information from HQ. An SOS signal has been detected from Eggman's base. Shadow the Hedgehog, your new objective is to rescue the captured agent. This is a direct order from the President."

"Understood."

He moved quickly but silently across the snowy grounds, ducking in and out of cover as searchlights scanned frantically. Now that he was keeping a low profile the searchlights were beginning to return to their original relaxed pace, making it easier to dart around unnoticed.

He followed the SOS signal to a small metal storage room that's door refused to open. Looking around to make sure no guards were nearby he forcefully kicked the door open to find a surprised white bat inside.

"Shadow!" she relaxed a little. "Why did they send you?"

"It's an order from the President," he told her. He looked back out the doorway at the slowed searchlights. "What's the problem?" he looked at her. "The security here is pitiful."

"That's what you think," she placed her hands on her hips. "The way you came in must have been the backway, because the way I need to go is much more difficult."

"Out the front door?"

She nodded. "Mm-hm. Well, shall we?"

.

"See? What did I tell you?" the bat said as they stared out across the grounds.

Before them was a large open area, surrounded on all sides by a tall metal wall. All across the area were large searchlights. Where one light stopped, another started, leaving little to no room to weave around the lights.

"I snatched up a couple of bombs along the way." She held up a smooth round sphere.

"We'll destroy the searchlights," Shadow nodded.

Placing the bombs wasn't a very difficult task for Rouge with her ability to fly. The only problem was that each broken tower temporarily attracted the attention of nearby lights, and she would have to wait a minute or so for them to return to their regular search pattern before moving to the next one. There didn't appear to be any robot guards in the area, as nothing showed up at the sounds of the towers falling, but she was sure that getting caught in the lights would call them over.

There were only four lights left. She flew over to the next one, but a stray piece of metal from one of the fallen lights had caught its attention and it swung around quickly. The side of the large metal light had struck her hard and winded her and she began to fall.

Shadow dashed over but she had righted herself just before reaching the ground and landed roughly on her feet. They shielded their eyes as the bright searchlight stopped dead on them and a loud siren began to sound across the open area. "That can't be good," Rouge said.

"Hmph, it doesn't matter how many come. There's no strength in numbers."

"Oh?" she turned at a loud stomping sound from the other side of the wall. "What if it's just one really big one?"

They watched as a massive robotic dog leapt onto the wall, knocking the snow from it and peered down at them. Smooth black metal covered its body and head like armor. There was a strange glowing rod protruding from its head like an antenna. The dog let out a loud mechanical roar before leaping from the wall and sending up a flurry of snow as it landed harshly.

"A guard dog, huh?" Shadow said.

"He doesn't seem very friendly," Rouge noted.

"I'll deal with it myself."

The dog bounded forward, its broad feet sending up flurries with every stomp. Rouge darted out of the way as Shadow jumped up to meet it with a hard kick to the side of its head. The dog swung its head to the side, sending him away, and slid in the snow as it skidded to a halt before bounding towards him again.

This time, Shadow dodged until the dog had stopped momentarily to gather its bearings. The dog's armor was thick and his attack hadn't even left so much as a mark. He noticed the dog shake its head angrily as its antenna barely scratched the wall before it turned around to face him again.

With another roar, the dog bounded towards him once more, this time its head was lowered and mouth open in an attempt to snatch up the hedgehog. He let the dog close in before jumping up and grabbing hold of the antenna, accidentally pulling it back with the force of the dog's momentum which caused it to skid and throw its head back. With an angry growl like metal grinding on cement, the giant dog began to run and thrash its head around madly in a vain attempt to shake Shadow off.

He held on and pulled the antenna hard to the left which forced the dog to go left as well. "Make it run into something!" He heard Rouge shout over the dog's stomping. There were the searchlights, but the dog had already knocked a few over during its thrashing and didn't seem to even notice them. The wall!

He pulled the antenna and the dog changed course, bounding blindly towards the thick metal wall ahead. Shadow kept on it to make sure that the dog wouldn't change direction, and at the last second, he let go and jumped from the robot's head as it crashed headfirst into the wall.

The stunned robot sat there for a moment before standing and shaking its head. The impact had broken the armor around its head. It turned as the pieces fell from its head, revealing a face lit with glowing red lights for eyes. It let out another roar at the hedgehog but this time it leapt up onto the wall again and turned to look down at him.

"Rouge!" he held out a hand.

Rouge, who had taken to the air, quickly tossed him something.

He caught it as the dog leapt from the wall with great force, its feet outstretched ready for landing, and managed to dart out of the way as it crashed onto the ground so hard that it sent a shockwave in all directions. For a moment the shockwave had even stunned the dog, and as it opened its jaws to roar again, Shadow had chucked something into its mouth. Almost immediately, the bomb went off and blew out the throat and bottom jaw. The robot dog stood there for a long moment, sparks flying from the damaged area, before slumping down as its lights went out.

Rouge landed beside him and stared at the fallen robot. "That solves that problem. It should be just a straight shot from here." She looked over at the far door.

.

"Don't you want to know what this is?" Rouge asked as they walked through the underground tunnel. She was holding a strange scepter that appeared to be made of stone. On the top was a peculiar purple stone held to it by carved wings.

"My assignment was to rescue you," he said shortly. "Nothing more."

"Geez," she looked only mildly disappointed at his lack of curiosity. "Always business with you."

They stopped as they reached a small room filled with computers and a large screen on the wall that displayed some kind of map. The map showed a basic image of a large island surrounded by water everywhere aside from an area in the top corner that was all red as opposed to the rest which was green.

"Ah," Rouge observed the image. "The kingdom of Soleanna, city of water. It's a constitutional monarchy you know."

He briefly observed the map before taking notice of a large painting on the other wall. It was an image of a human girl in a white dress.

"That must be the current ruler," Rouge told him. "Pretty young to rule a country all on her own."

"Why would the Doctor's base lead to a place like this?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I was just sent to retrieve this scepter. Of course, I picked up something else along the way. By the way, I need another favor. Could you escort me to the GUN rendezvous point? Eggman's drones are most certainly going to be looking for me to get this back."

"Fine. Where is it?"

She pointed at the red area of the map. "In the ancient castle located in Kingdom Valley."

.

As they stepped outside, they found themselves in a city that was surrounded on one side by a mountain and water on the other. "This is New City," Rouge said as she stretched her arms up. "It's the more modern side of Soleanna."

Shadow quietly followed Rouge through the city when she suddenly stopped. "Ah, it's you!"

There was a pretty purple wolf wearing a blue and black dress standing near the docks and looking out over the water that was sparkling in the morning sun. Her ear flicked slightly and she turned at the voice. "Hm? Oh, it's you again." She smiled. "So, you managed to get through that fortress after all."

"That's right," Rouge approached her. "Too bad I needed a little help getting out. But I got what I went in for." She stepped aside to allow the wolf a view of the hedgehog following her. "This is Shadow. The help."

He ignored her comment. "How do you know each other?"

"Jealous?" Rouge smirked. "I know she's pretty but you can't have her. She's all mine."

"What?" the wolf looked surprised.

"I'm only joking," Rouge told her before turning back to Shadow. "This is Violet. I guess you could say we know each other, but the truth is this is only the second time that we met."

...

Rouge was hiding amongst the lower branches of some trees and observing the fortress ahead through some kind of high-tech pair of binoculars. "Hm, this side looks pretty decent, but what I need will probably be in a more heavily guarded area."

"Is that so?"

She looked down in surprise at the wolf staring up at her from the snowy ground. "How in the world did you find me? I was sure I wasn't being followed."

The wolf smiled. "I'm a pretty good tracker. You're not really going in there, are you?"

"I am," the bat leapt gracefully from the tree. "It's business, after all. My!" she noticed the odd stone hanging from the stranger's necklace. "That clear stone looks interesting. Where'd you find it?"

"It was a gift," she replied. "What kind of business would you have in a place like that?"

Rouge shrugged. "I have orders to retrieve something valuable inside. What about you? You're obviously not a guard, so what are you doing hanging around this dull place?"

She looked over Rouge's shoulder at the snow-covered fortress. "I was caught off guard by some robots and they took something of mine. I followed them here, but I'm not sure how to go about getting it back from in there. I was thinking of getting my brother to help."

"I'll get it for you," Rouge offered with a smile. "I'm going in anyway. Have something nice for me as a thank-you for when I get it back to you."

"You're going alone?"

"It's nothing," Rouge said. "So, what's this item you had stolen from you?"

"It's a blue sword hilt. You'll know it when you see it. My name is Violet, by the way."

"Rouge," she nodded. "Well now, you go and make sure to track me down a nice gift while I add that to my list."

...

Rouge handed her the sword hilt. It was light blue with a big sapphire centered on one side of the cross guard, on the other was a ruby. "I'll admit that the stones are lovely, but is a broken sword really that important?"

Violet laughed a little and took the hilt. "Trust me, it's not broken. Here," she handed her a flawless looking diamond.

"Ah!" Rouge took the diamond and held it up to the light. "Almost as gorgeous as a Chaos Emerald!"

"So, what did you go in that place for anyway?"

Rouge ignored a look from Shadow as she showed Violet the scepter. "This."

He noticed Violet's sudden interest in the object. "That…" she looked at Rouge. "Don't you notice the strange essence that scepter gives off?"

Rouge looked over the scepter. "Maybe, but I had orders from GUN."

"I've heard of them," Violet mused aloud. "If they want it… I suppose it must be important. Where are you taking it? I can come with you in case those robots come back for it."

"That's why I'm here," Shadow eyed her. "I can handle it myself."

"I wasn't talking to you, now was I?" Violet shot him a fierce look that almost surprised him. "Besides," she turned back to Rouge. "Just giving you a stone as payment doesn't seem like enough to me. You helped me, so I'd like to help you."

"Good enough for me," Rouge smiled. "Any girl that puts 'his majesty' in place is fine in my book."

**To be continued…**

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**Just so you know, the story is mainly going to follow Violet and her brother Vincent, but of course I'll be having all the other sides/parts to it as well. I liked the idea of Rouge and Violet getting along right away. My friend came up with an idea of Violet and Shadow eventually getting together, which I'll do, eventually. But I thought it'd be more interesting if they didn't really like/trust each other at first lol.**

**Random facts: Rouge and Knuckles have an unspoken thing for each other (lol, duh). Rouge is often referred to as Shadow's best friend (cute), but he's never actually told her anything about his past, so I'm pretty sure she doesn't know that he's a cyborg. Cyborgs are organic beings with mechanical parts (in case you didn't know). Shadow can't age and has been alive for over 50 years!**

**Random facts for my story: Violet and Vincent cannot age either, but for a very different reason. Vincent is two years older than Violet. The two have been alive for almost a whole century! Violet is very kind, but doesn't take anyone's BS. Vincent is happy-go-lucky and smiles a lot.**


	3. Chapter 2: A Shadow from the Past

Violet led the way as they exited the city and crossed over a stone bridge to the forest. "There's a jungle not far off from this area," she mentioned aloud. "My brother is probably still there."

Rouge had been walking beside her while Shadow followed them from a few feet away. "What's he doing there?" she asked curiously.

"Well," Violet sighed. "He's supposed to be looking for something, but he's probably just messing around instead."

"Oh? Hunting for treasure?"

"I'm not sure if that's what I'd call it."

They walked in silence for a few moments before Rouge spoke up again in an attempt to learn more about the wolf. "Where are you from anyway?"

"Very far away," Violet replied dully. "But it doesn't matter anymore."

Rouge glanced at her. "Did you run away?"

"In a way, yes. But we didn't have much of a choice." She could tell that more questions were bound to follow. "My clan was wiped out, and my brother and I are the only ones left. Unless that old shaman is still alive…"

"Wiped out?" she stopped walking and stared at Violet in surprise. "By what?"

Violet walked a few more steps before stopping, but she couldn't bring herself to turn around. "Humans."

Shadow shot the wolf a quick glance but turned away before either of the others had noticed.

Violet turned suddenly to look directly at Rouge. "For centuries, my clan protected something very special. Something very powerful. Those humans that attacked us; they were afraid of that power. I suppose they assumed that we would use it against them. They attacked us, not only to stop us from using it, but also to take it for themselves." She turned back around. "Too bad for them that we would do anything to stop it from getting into the wrong hands."

"Does that mean you have it? What is it? It's not that sword piece?"

"No," Violet looked at her again, but this time she seemed to be back to her relaxed demeanor. "But since you work with humans, I'm not going to tell you."

"All of that and you won't even explain the details?" Rouge was almost stunned.

Violet smiled a little. "Maybe I'll explain someday, but definitely not today. You are a spy and a thief after all, aren't you?"

"I can't even argue," Rouge sighed.

She laughed a little. "Come on."

.

They had crossed a large clearing between the forest and the mountain that encompassed part of the city. At one end of the clearing was a shrine-like structure with three pillars standing one at each side and the third at the back. Behind the shrine was a drop off into a large canyon filled with gray water. As they approached, the large gems perched atop the pillars suddenly began to glow.

Violet stopped and looked up at the furthest pillar. "Normally, one has to prove themselves to gain access to Kingdom Valley. They would have to go through three trials and complete them first." She turned to look at Rouge and Shadow. "Luckily for you, I already did. So, I think you should be fine too."

"Hmph," Shadow crossed his arms. "What thinks it has the right to decide if we can go or not?"

She placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head at him. "You must not be one to follow traditions and rules."

"They're pointless."

She shook her head and turned back to the pillar. "I hope you won't be as rude to the gate keeper."

As she finished her sentence, a screech echoed from the canyon and a massive eagle came into view from around the wall. It swerved gracefully and began to descend towards them until coming to a hover a few feet away from Violet. Its huge wings kicked up dust as it flapped them to stay airborne.

For a moment it eyed the other two visitors with fierce gray eyes before letting out another loud screech. Moments later, two smaller, but still notably large eagles flew over as well.

"Grab on to the claws," Violet said.

"What?!" Rouge stared at her.

"The only way to get there is to go through the canyon. But it's filled with water and crumbling stone and the air currents are strong. The eagles are strong and can get us there in no time."

To demonstrate, she lifted her hand up and grabbed hold of the biggest eagle's jet-black talons. Once she seemed to have a firm grip, the bird flapped its wings harder and lifted her into the air then turned and flew towards the canyon.

Rouge and Shadow exchanged glances before approaching their own eagles. After watching Rouge grab on to the other eagle's claws and taking off, he turned to look up at the large bird hovering over him.

The eagle stared unblinkingly down at him through white eyes. It clicked its beak impatiently and flexed its claws as if telling him to get on with it. He reached up and grabbed hold of the talons, feeling the eagle firmly grip his hand before lifting him from the ground.

It flew in a wide arch to turn and head into the canyon after the others. To a bird this size, he probably felt like nothing more than a feather in its claws. The eagle rounded a bend and caught up to the others.

Violet glanced over her shoulder to see how they were doing. Rouge seemed to be a bit apprehensive about the giant bird of prey carrying her, and Shadow was merely surveying the water below. "The eagle should have a firm grip on you," she called over the rising wind. "But if you loosen yours, he might assume you want to get down and drop you!"

"What!?" Rouge had a look of horror.

"Can't you fly?" Violet grinned.

"Not in this!"

The wind was beginning to pick up and buffeted at them harshly, but the eagles appeared unfazed. They dove down and around another bend then up again where they reached an area where old broken stone towers and buildings protruded from the murky water. Some of the towers and buildings had grass growing on them and many of them were cracked or crumbling.

"Where do you need to be?" Violet called.

Rouge checked the device on her wrist then pointed at a distant platform almost hidden by tall broken walls. "There! The ancient castle!"

The eagle carrying Violet let out a cry and the other two responded. They changed their coarse and headed straight for the platform that was ringed by tall stone pillars. The largest eagle took the lead again and began to descend rapidly. Knowing what was coming, Violet readied herself as the eagle released her hand and she landed neatly onto the tall platform while the eagle ascended without a moment's pause.

Rouge also landed quite well, but the speed from the eagle's descent had caused her to stumble a bit as her feet touched the ground. Shadow landed easily as well and paused a moment to watch the birds fly away.

"Well," Rouge dusted herself off. "That was certainly something."

"I think it's quite exhilarating," Violet smiled. "Kind of like paragliding. But, are you okay?"

She nodded and looked around. "This place… The former king used to live here, until an accident that happened ten years ago."

"What kind of accident?" Shadow looked at her.

Rouge shook her head. "Not sure. Some kind of experiment or something that went wrong. I think it was called-"

"The Solaris Project," a menacing voice finished for her.

They turned to see a large man with a bushy mustache hovering above them on some kind of flying control system. "Doctor!" Rouge said. "Here already?"

"My dear Rouge," he greeted her then glanced at Shadow. "Shadow." He spoke with a cold tone. "Ah, and who might this be?"

Violet narrowed her eyes at him. "It's considered rude to ask a lady's name without introducing yourself first."

"Ah, where are my manners?" he bowed deeply. "I am Doctor Eggman." He stood up straight and returned his attention to Rouge. "But enough with formalities. I believe you have something that belongs to me." He pointed at the scepter that she was holding. "I'll be taking the Scepter of Darkness back now!"

Several robots hopped down from the walls and surrounded the trio in a wide circle. Each bot pointed weapons at them.

"This was just a trap," Violet hissed through gritted teeth then spoke to Rouge. "Get out of here! You can't let him have that scepter!"

She was confused for a moment but quickly regained composure and bolted into the air as Shadow and Violet had to dodge out of the way as several of the robots shot bullets at them. She wasn't fast enough however, and one of the robots had thrust itself upwards and crashed into the bat causing her to fall. Shadow had slid and caught her just before she hit the ground and they turned at the sound of something breaking.

"No!" Eggman shouted at the sight of the shattered scepter.

"Oh no," Violet said in a breathless whisper.

From the shattered bits of the scepter came a strange black mass; solid, but mist-like in appearance. The large mass rose like a snake then suddenly shot around the area and breaking the robots that it came into contact with.

"Retreat!" Eggman called and his few remaining bots quickly followed after him.

The mass suddenly shot up into the air before coming back down just as quickly. Shadow jumped back as it crashed into the ground before him and vanished. Seconds passed and his shadow stretched out as a black and gray figure rose from the other end.

"He looks like Shadow!" Rouge said.

Sure enough, the figure greatly resembled the hedgehog. However, its stripes were gray and it had no mouth.

It stood there for a long moment with its arms and head hanging down before laughing menacingly. "Of all the people… I never thought that I would be resurrected in _your _shade. I owe much to you, Shadow the Hedgehog…"

"Who are you?" Shadow demanded. "How do you know my name?"

Limbs still hanging like a puppet's, the dark figure began to slowly step towards him. He held his ground as the imposter came very close to him and leaned forward. As if finally realizing that it could see, the figure's green, catlike eyes slowly wandered up to look at him in the eyes.

"I am Mephiles the Dark. And now…I give back to you what you gave to me. A one-way ticket to oblivion!"

The figure lifted its hand and a strange dark purple and blue ball of swirling energy formed in its palm. Shadow jumped back but the mass expanded, catching all of them within it, a strange force that felt like electricity prevented them from escaping. Then, they had all vanished.

**To be continued…**

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**Yaaa. I don't really have anything to say this time so... Byeeeeee!**


	4. Chapter 3: New Old World

**So now we switch to Silver's side of the story. There will be some hopping back and forth between sides so as to express the whole story in chronological order.**

* * *

The fire was burning just as powerfully as ever. An entire city, an entire world drowning in a sea of flames. Above the ruined, burning city flew a glowing silvery-white hedgehog who looked down at the scenery with contempt. This terrible fire was all he really knew. He did not even know when or how it had come to be this way, as it had happened long before his birth. No one ever had any interest in discussing it, but it was likely that they did not know either. All that was known was that the source of the eternal fire was a monster referred to as Iblis.

He held a great hatred within himself for that monster. He had heard stories of places and things that held great beauty. Plants and animals, a sky that was bright and blue, diverse locations and biomes, and mass amounts of something very precious, water. But Iblis and his flames had stolen that away long ago. The beast had even managed to claim the lives of people he knew, including his parents when he was younger.

His flight was interrupted by a spiraling pillar of flames that suddenly burst upwards from the fires below and blocked him. He stopped and angrily swung his arm out, a strange green force blasting the flames away.

"Silver!" He turned at the voice and saw a pinkish-purple cat calling him from atop one of the broken buildings. She pointed back in the direction she had come from. "He's appeared again!"

Clenching his fists with anger, he suddenly bolted across the sky in the direction she had indicated. It didn't take him long to find the massive beast thrashing around in the middle of the broken city. It stood tall over the crumbling buildings, its lower half submerged in the flames and lava below. The body itself appeared to be made of fire and magma that shaped itself into a bipedal monster with four arms and a rock-covered head and jaws that formed large spikes and horns. Jaw gaping, it scanned the area with its two dark green eyes. A third, much larger eye located atop its head had spotted the little hedgehog landing on a collapsed building.

"Enough!" Silver called the monster out.

Iblis turned towards him and let out a loud, deep roar in response. It used one of its hands to grab a large building as it began to wade through the lava to him.

Luckily, at this size the monster was relatively slow, but it had certainly picked a massive weapon. Silver began running along the side turned building as Iblis started to bring down its own in an attempt to crush the hedgehog.

He jumped and took to the air again as the monster slammed the building down onto the other, causing them to crumble apart. Quickly, he made a wide arch and flew around the monster back to the broken buildings. As he passed, he used his psychokinesis ability to snatch up a large chunk of building then spun around and chucked the object at the monster.

Unprepared, and too slow to react in time, it couldn't dodge the incoming object. The piece hit Iblis squarely in its large third eye. Covering its head and bellowing with pain and anger, the monster tripped and fell backwards.

The cat had caught up in time to see the last parts of Iblis slowly sinking below the lava.

Silver slowly landed nearby. "What's the point of all this!?" He slammed his fist into a wall. "Every time it's defeated it just comes back! It never ends!"

"Calm down," she told him.

"I won't!" he said. "Tell me how to stop it for good!"

She shook her head. "I don't know."

"You simply need to get rid of the source." A sinister voice said.

They looked up to see a black and gray hedgehog standing at the top of the wall and staring down at them through unblinking green eyes. "The 'trigger' if you will."

"Who are you?" Silver demanded. "Do you know how to get rid of Iblis for good?"

He stared down at them for a moment longer. "I am Mephiles the Dark… Yes, I can show you exactly what you need to do. Follow me…if you want to learn the truth." He turned and began to walk off.

The two exchanged glances for a quick second before Silver followed after the stranger. The cat shook her head but followed as well. Something didn't feel right about this mysterious person.

.

Mephiles had led them to a strange building filled with rust. Each room they passed was either too dark to see into or just like all the other buildings' rooms; empty and falling apart. At last, they came to a room filled with old computers and control panels. On the wall was a large screen that was alight with maps and codes.

"These are reports from a very long time ago," he gestured up at the screen then pressed a button. Several images and boxes swapped around until another report opened. "They're all from before the flames took over. This one is a report about the events leading up to Iblis' release."

Neither of the other two could read the strange coding, but several images seemed to get the point across. "This explains how to stop Iblis?" Silver scanned the screen.

Mephiles held out a large purple emerald. "Look here. This will show you the one who is to blame."

He hesitated but took the emerald and looked at it. From within it, he could make out an image. "I see it!" he was shocked. "This blue hedgehog…he's the Iblis trigger?"

"Yes…"

"Blue hedgehog?" the cat repeated quietly.

"I can take you back to the time when the Iblis trigger was still alive; before he caused the destruction of your world. If you can dispose of him before he can release the Flames of Disaster, your world will be restored. It will be as it should."

"Can you really do that?! How?"

Without responding, Mephiles opened his hand and produced a dark ball of energy. It expanded and encompassed all of them before they vanished.

.

It was a strange feeling. It was like he had closed his eyes for only a moment but there was a feeling like he was falling. He landed on his feet and suddenly found himself somewhere entirely different. For a moment he felt a rush of panic. "Blaze! Blaze!" There was no response.

He took a few steps then immediately stepped back and glanced around. He was surrounded by massive trees topped with green leaves that made their own canopy of sorts. Shafts of warm light were shining softly through gaps in the leaves. He looked down and shifted his feet. The ground was covered with green.

"What's with that look?" someone laughed.

Surprised, he turned quickly only to find that no one was there. He looked around and took a step back. "Who said that? Where are you?"

"Up here!"

He looked up to see a shaggy blue wolf sitting at the base of one of the tree's thick branches. The wolf had a pale blue, almost white belly and face and thick fur that covered his shoulders and chest.

"You had a look like you've never seen grass before!" the wolf grinned.

Silver relaxed a little and looked down at the grass again. "I…haven't."

"What?!" the stranger was shocked. "Even the arctic has grass. Even the _ocean _has grass! Sort of…"

"Ocean?" Silver looked up at him.

"Yeah the ocean," he held his arms up and stretched them. "You know, blue water as far as the eye can see. Most of the planet is ocean."

"Really?!"

"Huh?" the wolf tilted his head. "Where are you from?"

"I-" Silver wondered if the wolf would believe him. "I'm from the future."

He cocked his head even lower. "The future doesn't have grass?"

"It only has fire and suffering."

"Uh, that kind of sounds like Hell…"

"What?"

"Never mind," he jumped down from the tree and walked over to the hedgehog. "My name is Vincent by the way. What's yours?"

"Silver."

"Appropriate," Vincent nodded. "So, time traveler. What brings you here to the past-present?"

"I've come to stop the disaster that destroyed my world from ever taking place," Silver said firmly. "I need to find the Iblis trigger!"

"Iblis!"

Silver flinched slightly at his reaction. "You know Iblis?"

"Oh! Um," Vincent cleared his throat. "Well uh, I mean, no. No, I don't. Not personally."

"What?"

"I mean, that's a monster that's been sealed away for years. You're saying it's going to escape and destroy everything?"

"Yes! So I need to find the person responsible before it happens!"

He recomposed himself. "Oh… So, like, do you know who's responsible?"

"A blue hedgehog. Have you seen him?"

"Nope. Actually, you're the only hedgehog I've ever met."

Silver turned away and thought for a moment. "I guess it wouldn't be that easy…"

Vincent watched him for a moment before smiling again. "You look completely lost. Giving up already?"

"What?" Silver turned back to him. "No way!"

Vincent laughed. "You're really loud when you're excited. Hey! I'm looking for someone too, my sister. I'm not as good a tracker as she is, but maybe I can help you out. Who knows, I might find her along the way too. I know the nearby areas and city pretty well by now."

Silver thought for a moment. It was probably a good idea to have Vincent with him while he searched. After all, he was alone now and had no idea where Blaze or Mephiles had been sent to. He nodded. "Okay, thanks."

"By the way," Vincent said. "Who were you calling for earlier? You lost your sibling too?"

"Blaze? She's not my sibling." He paused a moment. "At least, we're not related or anything."

"Oh, so you got separated from your friend-sister. I'm sure we'll find her too. Let's go!"

Silver watched him for a minute before following. He had never met someone as friendly and happy as Vincent.

.

Silver was enthralled by the forest scenery. He had never seen so much green or felt a cool breeze like the one that rustled through the leaves every now and again. He could hear soft chirps and whistling and caught glimpses of tiny birds fluttering from branch to branch.

He was so busy watching the birds up above that he didn't notice the large branch in the grass until he had tripped over it with a yelp.

Vincent turned and walked back to him. "Whoa, what are you tripping over branches for?" He helped him up. "You gotta watch where you're going."

Silver shook his head then gasped at something standing between the trees. "What is that?!"

"Hm?" Vincent followed his gaze just in time to see a deer shoot its head up then leap away and out of sight. "You scared it," he laughed. "That was a deer. A doe, to be precise. Bucks have antlers." He curled his claws over his head to imitate antlers.

"A deer…" Silver stared in the direction it had run off.

.

"We're pretty close to the clearing that leads to the city," Vincent said. "There are usually local humans hanging around the area, so we can ask them if they've seen any of the people we're looking for. Hey…do they have humans where you come from?"

"Not many," Silver replied.

"Oh, well in this time, they're everywhere. By now they've pretty much gotten used to seeing people like us, but don't be surprised if any children try to pet you."

They stopped upon finding a human man fussing over something as he removed barrels from the back of a truck. After placing all of the barrels at the base of a large tree he stood there looking up at it with his hands on his hips.

"Yo!" Vincent waved a greeting.

The man nodded to them. "Oh, hello. Have you two come for the festival?"

"Not intentionally," Vincent said. "That's tomorrow night isn't it?"

"That's right," he nodded. "And I'm supposed to fill all of these barrels up before then! I figured I'd give myself two days, but now I'm thinking I should've started sooner…"

"Fill them with what?" Silver peered into one of the empty barrels.

"Apples!" the man pointed up at the bright red apples hanging high above them. "Only thing is the apple trees here are so big it makes it hard to climb up and get any. Much less enough to fill all these."

Vincent surveyed the line of barrels. "Must be a big celebration if you need that many apples. Why didn't you get anyone to help you?"

"Everyone's pretty busy with their own preparations," he sighed. "I figured I could handle it on my own until I realized just how many I would need."

"Hm," Vincent walked over to Silver. "I know you're kind of on some mission right now, but why don't we help this guy out? That hedgehog you're looking for is probably going to hang around for that festival anyway. Besides, I really want one of those apples!"

"Okay," Silver nodded.

"Great!" He turned and waved at the man. "Hey mister! We'll help and I bet we can finish it all today!"

The man stared at him for a moment. "Well, that'd be something. Alright then! Let's get started already. I'll get the ladder from my truck."

"I don't need a ladder," Vincent grinned. He turned to the tree and jumped up onto the thick trunk, clinging with sharp black claws. "I'm a pretty good climber for a wolf!" He quickly crawled up the tree until he found a sturdy enough bough to climb on to. "Watch out below!" He called before vigorously shaking the branch and causing tons of apples to fall.

"Works for me!" the man smiled and bent to pick up some of the apples.

Silver looked around at all the scattered apples. It would take too long to pick them all up like that. He held out his hand as his body began to glow and all of the apples around him began to glow as well and lift into the air. He guided the levitating apples over to a barrel and dropped them in.

"Well that's efficient," the man was stunned.

"Neat!" Vincent shouted from the tree. "You're really something Silver!"

"It's nothing," he felt a bit embarrassed by the praise but couldn't help but smile.

They repeated the same process several more times until each of the barrels was full. "Thanks a lot!" The man said as he placed the last barrel into the back of his truck. "You two sure make a good team. I feel bad though, you guys did all the work."

"Don't feel bad," Vincent said from his place on one of the lower branches. "It was easy. We even finished in time for lunch!" He took a bite out of an apple.

"Still, I wish I knew a way to repay you."

"Have you seen a blue hedgehog anywhere?" Silver asked him.

"A blue hedgehog? No, I would have remembered that. You should ask one of the guards! If there's anyone like that around then they've probably noticed."

"Okay, thanks."

After watching the man drive off, Silver looked up at the wolf sitting in the tree. He levitated himself up and sat beside him.

Vincent almost choked on the bite of apple he was chewing. "Silver! You can fly!"

He tilted his head. "Is it really that amazing?"

"Are you kidding? It's awesome! I wish I could fly." He took a thoughtful bite of his apple then handed another one to Silver. "I'm guessing you've never had an apple before?"

He shook his head and took the apple and examined it before taking a bite. "Mm! It's sweet!" he said through a mouthful.

Vincent laughed. "What'd you expect? Just don't eat the seeds, they're gross."

After lunch, they continued through the forest for a little while longer before coming to a large clearing. A few human children were kicking a soccer ball back and forth while a dog weaved excitedly between them. Silver watched their game for a moment until Vincent called his attention back.

"You sure get distracted easy," Vincent smirked. "Isn't this mission you're on like super important?"

"Of course it is!" Silver turned quickly to him. "It's just…"

"I get it," Vincent laughed. "Lots to see. There are usually guards posted at the entrances to the city." He pointed over to a stone bridge that crossed past the mountain and over a large gap in the ground. "Other side of that bridge is one entrance. I'll go ask them if they've seen any of the people we're looking for. Wait here."

Silver nodded. He gazed up at the sky and watched pure white clouds steadily going by. The soft breeze was relaxing and he almost felt sleepy. He flinched as something touched him and looked down to see the black and white dog sniffing at his hand. "Are you a dog?"

"_Woof!" _It looked up at him, panting with a goofy smile and tail swinging from side to side.

He stared at it, unsure of what to do, until the dog leaned forward and licked his hand. He pulled his hand away then carefully stroked the dog's neck.

"Look at you, making new friends!" Vincent had returned. "Hi doggy!" he vigorously scratched the thick fur around its neck, which the animal seemed to love as its tail had begun to swing faster.

"Rocco!" one of the children called. The dog barked in response and turned to run back to the children.

"Dogs are great," Vincent said then turned to Silver. "The guards said they've seen my sister, but she went off in the opposite direction of where they say they've heard about a blue hedgehog running around. I'll stick with you though; I need to go back to those jungle ruins anyway. Besides, Violet can take care of herself just fine. We can get to the jungle this way," he gestured for him to follow.

"Then let's go!" Silver ran past him.

"You don't even know where you're going!"

.

The forest was beginning to get noticeably denser and wetter. The types of plants had changed and a wider variety of birdsong could be heard.

"The jungle here has a lot of water," Vincent said as they pushed past a large elephant ear plant. "Because it's at the edge of the kingdom, and the kingdom is surrounded by water. There are two ancient temple ruins. One in the jungle and another in a desert that you can get to through a portal. Oh," he stopped suddenly and Silver almost walked into him. "Uh, can you swim?"

"No."

"Eeh… Okay then just don't fall in the water. But you should be fine, since you can fly. Oh yeah, if you see a crocodile, stay away from it."

"A what?"

"Oh boy… It's a big water lizard with lots of teeth. It will probably eat you."

Silver stopped and stared at him for a moment before following again. It wasn't long after that they found themselves standing at the edge of land. Before them was a vast expanse of gray water as far as the eye could see. There were several small islands dotted around the area and lots of odd stone structures covered in moss that protruded from the water.

"I wonder how deep it is," Vincent was leaning over the water. "There must have been a serious flood long ago." He stood up straight and shrugged. "Ah well. Guess we should look around for that blue hedgehog. Hey, let's head for the temple. Maybe he's around there."

Silver nodded then looked around. "I've never seen so much water."

"Sounds like you haven't seen a lot of things. Hey!"

Silver flinched. "What?"

Vincent was grinning broadly. "Ever seen a giant turtle?"

"A giant…what?"

"A turtle!" He looked around wildly until he spotted a tree hanging over the water. There were very large fruits hanging from its branches. He ran over and jumped up the tree and hit one of the big fruits out of it, sending it splashing into the water.

Silver watched the fruit float by then turned to Vincent as the wolf returned. "What was that for?"

As if in response to his question, a massive green head suddenly burst from the water and snatched the fruit in its beak-like mouth. They had to jump back to avoid getting splashed as a huge creature breached and righted itself on the surface.

"For the turtle!" Vincent laughed at Silver's shocked expression. "I figured out the other day that if you feed them their favorite fruit, they'll let you ride on their back. Like paying a ferry."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Look at that cute face and tell me that's dangerous!"

Now that the animal had settled and was floating on the surface, he was able to get a better look at it. It stared at them with big blue oval eyes that reflected a great gentleness.

"Well, come on!" Vincent jumped from the land onto the turtle's shell and settled himself on top. "He can take us right to the temple, right little guy?"

The turtle lifted its mouth from the water and let out a gleeful squeak.

"Little?" Silver hopped up onto the shell and settled beside Vincent.

"Yeah, he's just a baby."

"How can you tell?"

"He told me!"

The turtle had begun to move.

"You can understand it?" Silver gave him a very confused look.

"Sort of," Vincent said, "but that's not important. He'll ferry us over to the temple. In the meantime, enjoy the view while you look out for any blue hedgehogs."

The jungle was filled with even more to see than the forest they were in earlier. There were many different shaped and colored birds hiding amongst the trees on the islands, each one making a different sound than the others. Sometimes he could spot a strange insect or lizard clinging to the trunks. "What is that?"

Vincent looked to see what he was looking at. Sitting atop a large lily pad was a fat green creature. "Oh, that's a frog. They have long sticky tongues that they use to catch bugs. When they're born they actually look totally different."

"Really?"

"Mm-hm. Oh, hey! Crocodiles!" he pointed at a large narrow head sitting completely still in the water. As the turtle swam past it, the crocodile silently sunk below the surface and out of sight. "Sneaky fellows."

.

"Well," Vincent said as he waited for Silver. "Here's the temple."

The hedgehog hopped from the turtle's back and onto the large moss-covered steps. He walked up to meet Vincent at the top and looked up at the temple. Like all the other structures, it was completely made of stone and covered in moss and plants.

They went inside the dark gaping entrance and walked until reaching a collapsed area that completely blocked the rest of the hall. "This has moss over it too," Vincent noted. "Probably been like this a long time." He straightened up and stretched. "Well, that person you're looking for is definitely not in there."

Silver shook his head and turned back to the entrance. He stopped right at the mouth and stared out at the jungle. He looked up as a rumble sounded from the sky and noticed that the sky was filled with gray clouds.

"Ah, looks like rain." Vincent poked his head out and examined the sky. He sniffed. "Yup, it's going to start pouring any second now. We might as well stay under this cover for now." He looked at Silver. "I'm pretty sure that guy is going to stick around for tomorrow night's festival, so no need to be down about it. Though, we'll probably be stuck in this place for the rest of the day. But hey, you get to see water fall from the sky!" He flinched and ducked back under cover as a raindrop hit his nose.

Silver watched as drops of water began to fall. With every second they began to fall faster and harder until it became difficult to see through the sheets of rain. He stood at the edge of cover for a long while and watched, a cool mist spraying him every few seconds as the wind fought against the rain. He wasn't sure how long he had stood there before finally deciding to move deeper under the cover and sit against the wall. He shivered slightly. Now that he was settled, the wet and the dark combined was making him cold. Silver was surprised when Vincent moved to sit close to him.

"You cold?" Vincent smirked. "What'd you expect, standing in the rain like that? You'll get sick." He leaned against him and prodded the hedgehog's nose with a claw. "Lucky for you I have lots of thick warm fur and I'm not shy. Ha-ha!"

He twitched his nose and pulled his knees up to his chest for more warmth. They sat there in silence, listening to the rain for a long while before Silver suddenly realized how tired he was. He tried fighting sleep for a bit, but his eyelids were becoming increasingly difficult to keep open and he finally dozed off.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**My best friend, who I have proof read my chapters, says that so far this one is his favorite. Lol. I liked the idea of Silver being completely amazed and easily distracted by the natural scenery since he comes from a world of fire and destruction. He's so cute!**


	5. Chapter 4: Amy

**One of my proofreader friends is shipping Silver and Vincent real hard now. I think I'm going to tease her with it *evil laughter*. Also, I thought it'd be interesting if Vincent and Violet had Celtic/Gaelic like roots.**

* * *

Silver awoke the next day to find himself alone in the darkness. He sat up and shivered then made his way outside to warm up in the sun. He had almost thought that he'd wake up to find that it was all just some odd dream, but there he was surrounded by plants and water.

"Oh, you're awake!"

He turned to see Vincent appear from behind a temple wall. "Where were you?"

"Doesn't matter," the wolf shrugged. "I didn't go far." He held out a large pink fruit to him. "Try this." He waited patiently for the hedgehog to finish eating before speaking again. "We should go back. The festival is tonight, so we'll probably find that person you're looking for."

.

"Ah, back in dry forest," Vincent stretched his arms up high.

"Hey Vincent," Silver walked around to stand in front of him. "You're not from here, right? What's your home like?"

"My home? I don't have one. Home is wherever my sister and I go." He cocked his head to the side as if thinking. "But where I'm from…that's a long story."

Silver turned and looked around at the trees. "Does this place remind you of it?"

Vincent looked around as well. "Hm, a little. There was a forest nearby, and a mountain, but we lived in a big open grass field near a huge cliff by the sea. The field was called Tir na nog. Field of Youth."

"That sounds beautiful," Silver looked back at him.

"Yeah…" He felt a slight pang in his heart. Suddenly, he noticed something moving between the trees. He quickly gestured for Silver to keep quiet. "Follow me," he whispered and crouched down to crawl.

Confused, Silver crawled after him to a row of bushes. Vincent slowly poked his nose up from the bushes. The doe on the other side blinked at him, their noses were almost touching. Ears forward with curiosity she slowly lifted her head in time with his. "Hello love," Vincent said softly. He turned back to Silver who was still crouched in the bushes. "Get up here, slowly."

Silver sat up and held back a gasp. The deer blinked at them then leaned forward to sniff at the hedgehog. He held his breath, afraid to frighten the animal away. After a bit of sniffing and snorting, the doe licked his forehead then turned and walked back through the trees.

Vincent smiled as Silver tried to rub off the deer's saliva. "She likes you! Where I come from deer are sacred. We never killed or ate them. After all, the deity we worshipped took the form of a deer."

.

Silver was gazing up at the night sky for what seemed like ages before Vincent prodded him. "Almost time for that festival," the wolf told him. "Let's go find a high place to keep a look out for that guy. The top of one of the buildings should be good."

.

There were lots of loud cheering and applause as a long silver boat came into view from under a bridge. Long white paddles pushed it easily through the canal like ornamental fins. At the front of the boat stood a young woman in a white dress decorated with eagle feathers. She smiled and waved at the crowds of people watching.

The boat slowly came to a stop at a structure in the center of the canal. The woman stepped off from the boat onto the structure where an old priest stood waiting. He bowed slightly then nodded to a robed figure beside him. The figure bowed and held out an ornamental-looking torch that was lit with a blazing fire.

She carefully took the torch and stared at the flames. Suddenly, visions of raging fire filled her mind. Rising from the flames with a roar was a massive beast of fire and lava.

"Miss Elise?"

She blinked back into reality and glanced at the assistant. "I'm fine. Thank you." She held the torch up. "We give thanks to the sun god Solaris for this time of peace and prosperity. May your guiding light protect us always." She lowered the torch to a gauntlet and allowed it to catch fire. The flames quickly spread up across decorative tendrils and into a much larger gauntlet that lit up with a fierce blaze.

Fireworks began to go off in the night sky as people cheered. She turned to wave but something crashed into the structure with an explosion and she stumbled. Several humanoid robots landed all around the structure and took aim. She looked around for an escape route but she was surrounded on all sides.

"Ah, the young princess." A man standing on a flying platform appeared.

"What do you want?"

"First of all, that Chaos Emerald you're guarding." She held the blue emerald closer. "Also, the key to the Flames of Disaster! Now, come along like a good little girl."

Before she could think of what to do, a blue blur appeared around them, kicking up a gust. Something round and blue was bouncing from robot to robot leaving them broken and smashed. It stopped suddenly, revealing a blue hedgehog, and looked up at a robot that was struggling to keep its balance on a broken ledge. He smirked and lightly tapped the bot with his foot, causing it to lean and fall into the water.

"Not that meddling hedgehog!" Eggman shouted. "Stop him!"

The hedgehog darted out of the way as a rocket crashed into the spot he had just been standing. Suddenly, he was beside the woman. "Look's like you could use a hand!"

She took a step back. "Who…are you?"

"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!" He suddenly picked her up and leapt from the structure as more rockets and missiles launched at them.

"Get them!" Eggman shouted.

A large robot with two large drills for arms promptly landed in their path. Sonic turned only to find every way out was now blocked by robots. "I'll take care of this," he said as he placed Elise down on her feet. As he was about to attack, his attention was pulled away by her shout and he turned to find that she was caught in the grip of a large robotic arm that had quickly ascended back to its master. He went to jump after it but the other robots had blocked him until they were too high up to for him to reach.

Elise struggled in the robot's grip and managed to free her arm and throw something down. "Sonic!"

He caught the emerald and looked back at her. "I've got it! Don't worry, I'll save you." He watched regretfully as they entered a massive flying ship that had flown into view.

.

"That's him!" Silver clenched his fist. "I've finally found him. The Iblis Trigger."

Vincent stood beside him atop the large circular building and stared down at the settling scene. "Dude! Did you see all of that!? That was insane!"

As Silver moved to leap from the building a figure suddenly ran into him and hugged the hedgehog. "Sonic! I've found you!"

"What the!? Let go!" he struggled in her grip.

Upon hearing an unfamiliar voice, the pink hedgehog quickly released him. "You're not Sonic! Oh, I'm sorry!" Embarrassed, she playfully pushed him which caused him to lose his balance.

Vincent laughed as he stopped him from falling over. Silver righted himself and turned back to find that the blue hedgehog had vanished. "He's gone!"

"Hm?" the girl looked over. "I'm sorry, did you miss someone because of me?"

He shook his head. "It's fine. I'm sure he didn't go far."

"I don't know…" Vincent mused.

"Hey, I'm looking for someone too!" She grabbed hold of Silver's hand. "Let's help each other out!"

"Wait I-"

"My name's Amy. What's yours?"

"I…" he sighed, defeated. "Silver…"

"That's a nice name," Amy nodded then looked at the wolf. "And yours?"

"Vincent," he smiled.

"Okay," she nodded again then took off, roughly dragging Silver with her. "Come on!"

"Ah! H-hey wait! Vincent! Help!"

Vincent laughed and followed after them. "Slow down girl! Don't break him ha-ha!"

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Ah yes, the opening scene in the game that tricks you into thinking you're about to play a great game with gorgeous graphics and then... the graphics turn into garbage hahaha!**


	6. Chapter 5: The Desert

**After reading this one, my best friend said that I am doing great things with Vincent. Lol. So far, Vincent's lines are my favorite to write. Also you may notice that I cleverly skipped the part in the game where you go to Wave Ocean and get attacked by a random orca. I find that part of the game/story completely pointless.**

* * *

"Sonic!" a voice called.

He turned to see a two-tailed fox running up to him. "Tails, there you are!"

"I saw the whole thing," Tails told him. "That girl Eggman kidnapped is the princess of this land."

"Where do you think they're headed?"

Tails turned and pointed through the alleyway. "The direction they were heading leads to a beach resort, past that there's supposed to be a desert with an old temple. I can't think of any reason why Eggman would want to go to the beach." He looked back at the hedgehog. "My guess is there's something at that temple."

Sonic nodded. "So, we'll meet them there. Come on!"

.

Elise sat quietly in the sandy old room and stared at the floor. For some reason, they had stopped at the ancient desert temple. Eggman had locked her up in one of the old sandstone rooms where the only source of light was a small barred window at the top of the wall. In the silence she began to remember a voice.

"_Don't cry Elise. Become a good ruler who never cries… For if you do…"_

Her thoughts were interrupted by something crashing through the wall from outside. She quickly stood and coughed from the dust and sand that had been kicked up. As the debris settled, she made out the figure of the blue hedgehog standing there. "Sonic?"

"Hiya!" He grinned.

They stepped out into the morning light. "This place," she looked around at the tall walls filled with rows of broken empty seats surrounding the large circular area. "This is an arena."

Sonic threw his arm out in front of her and she stopped. He narrowed his eyes, listening to what sounded like rusty old chains and gears.

"There!"

Across the arena an old iron gate was rising, dirt and rust trickled from it as it rose to reveal a large pair of glowing red eyes. A huge catlike robot stalked out from the gate and began to prowl the perimeter, eying them all the while.

"Hmph," Sonic smirked. "Look's like the little kitty wants to play. Why not? I've got some time on my hands."

The robot growled then let out a mechanical roar similar to that of a jaguar's. There were two long fangs protruding from the top of its mouth and its curled claws glinted in the sunlight as it dashed forward.

"Bring it on!" Sonic dashed to the side and it quickly turned on a dime to follow him. With a powerful kick of its hind legs, it lunged forward, claws outstretched to pounce on its target. Sonic had managed to jump just in time to avoid getting hit as the claws tore deep gashes into the stone floor. "Hm?" He noticed the robot roughly yank its paws from the ground and saw the shifting sand that was below the stone floor. "Looks like a sandpit is under this floor. I'll let him dig his own grave!"

He stopped and waited for the robot, dashing away as it leapt at him. It crashed its claws into the stone causing deep cracks to run through. "Here kitty!" The robot growled and lunged again, each pounce leaving behind more and more deep cracks in the ancient stone.

Finally, Sonic halted right in the middle of the cracked ground and waited. "Over here~" Annoyed, the robot jaguar crouched then sprung up with a mighty leap. Smiling, Sonic watched it fly through the air for a moment before yawning and running out of the way.

With a very loud crash, the jaguar landed at the center of all the cracks and breaks and the floor immediately buckled beneath it. It growled loudly in surprise as it tried to get free, but the large pieces of broken stone combined with the sand sinking it all down made it impossible for the robot to escape. With lots of thrashing and loud roars, the robot was swallowed down beneath the sandpit along with the rest of the floor.

Sonic went back to Elise and dusted his hands off. "Piece of cake! Now let's get you out of here."

"R-right," she nodded.

.

Silver and Vincent followed Amy as she scanned the desert horizon. She had led them out of the city and through a beach resort and all the way to the desert. Vincent walked behind them with his arms behind his head and a rather nonchalant expression on his face. Meanwhile, Silver was dragging his feet across the sand like a child that was in no rush to head to school.

"Sonic was here," Amy shielded her eyes from the morning sun.

"How do you know?" Vincent asked.

"I can feel it. Call it my girlish intuition."

"Huh, I wonder if that's how my sister always finds me?"

Silver stopped and shook his head. "What am I even doing here?"

"Looking for someone called Sonic, apparently," came Vincent's smart response.

Amy turned back to them. "I'm sorry. I promise I'll help you find who you're looking for as soon as we find Sonic."

Silver shook his head then looked around. The morning sun was reflecting gold across the sand and the sky was clear. "This place is so beautiful…"

Amy looked around, confused. "This desert?"

"This whole world," he said. "Everything is so beautiful and full of life, and everyone is so happy. It's incredible."

She tilted her head then looked to Vincent for some sense out of it. "What does that mean?"

He shrugged. "I mean, he's not wrong. But not everyone is happy. Some people just want to watch the world burn." He winced. "Oh, maybe that was a bad choice of words…"

"Huh?" Amy glanced between them. "Why?"

"Come on!" Silver was suddenly filled with a newfound determination. "I'll help you find who you're looking for. He must have gone to that building, right?" He gestured at the structure in the distance.

"Right!"

"Uh," Vincent tilted his head. "That's not just a building. It's a temple, and a big one at that. Most of it is probably buried." He looked at Amy. "Why would this guy go there?"

"Not sure," she said. "But he definitely did. I just know it!"

He sighed deeply. "Okay, fine. Let's go to the buried temple that's probably filled with sandpits and death."

The interior of the temple was just as Vincent had predicted, half buried and filled with pits of sinking sand. Many of the rooms had become giant sandpits themselves, leaving only tall statues and wall hangings as safe places to stand.

Silver looked down at the shifting sand below as they skirted along a ledge. "That looks pretty dangerous."

"What part of 'sandpits and death' did you not understand?" Vincent said then looked at the hedgehog as if he was crazy. "What's it to you? You can fly!"

"Yeah, but you can't," he replied.

"You think I don't know that?"

"Oh, hush you two!" Amy turned to scold them. "We're getting closer, I can tell."

"Yeah," Vincent huffed. "Closer to death by suffocation. Yippee."

"You seem pretty irritable all of a sudden," Silver noted.

"I hate sand… Gets all in your fur and shoes."

Amy hushed them again.

They soon found themselves in a large dark room where the only source of light was a large gaping hole in the ceiling. There was a huge hill of sand directly under the light. The jagged outline of the hole along with the broken pieces of sandstone littered about suggested that the ceiling had collapsed.

Silver stared up at the hole while Amy looked around the dark chamber. He noticed some debris trickling down. "It looks like it just recently collapsed."

Vincent went over to him and followed his gaze. "Yeah… The way it cracked doesn't look natural. Kind of looks like something fell on it." The hill of sand suddenly began to shift and flood the rest of the floor. "Aw, great!" Vincent pulled his feet from the sand with an annoyed look.

"Look!" Amy pointed.

A large robotic jaguar thrust its head from the top of the hill followed by its clawed front paws which it used to pull itself free. With a great effort, the robot managed to pull its lower half from the sand and began to take in its surroundings.

"A robot?" Silver stepped back.

"Oh?" Vincent twitched his ears. "You know what a robot is?"

"Of course I know what a robot is!"

"Well excuse me, mister 'I've never seen grass before'!"

"Are you making fun of me?" he was mildly confused.

"Guys!" Amy pulled their attention back to the matter at hand.

The jaguar had suddenly noticed them and glared at them with glowing red eyes. It opened its mouth and sand poured from it as it let out a strangled growl. It crouched to pounce on them, but as it jumped the sand caused it to slip and it crashed into the ground, kicking up a large cloud of sand.

"Ack! I can't see!" Silver was trying to rub the irritating sand from his eyes.

"I told you sand was stupid," Vincent ran over to him. He gasped as the robot stood up and turned to them. "You don't need eyes, let's go!" He grabbed Silver's wrist and pulled him along, narrowly avoiding the robot's claws. He skidded to a stop upon entering a room filled with swinging blades then turned to find the robot fast-approaching. "Oh, we're facing death on both ends." He looked to Silver, who still had his eyes shut. "Which do you prefer?"

Amy suddenly swung a large yellow hammer at a nearby wall and smashed it in, revealing a corridor on the other side. "This way!" she called.

"Oh, there was a third option. Wait, where did you get that?" He yelped as the jaguar rammed into the doorway and swiped at them with a paw. "Never mind, we're coming!"

They ran through the corridor and up a spiraling staircase until finally reaching a room with an exit to the outside world. They kept going until the temple was a good distance away and the jaguar showed no signs of following.

"Did we lose it?" Amy panted.

"What did I say!?" Vincent threw his arms up. "Sandpits and death!" He directed his voice at Silver. "Didn't I say that?!"

"Yeah," Silver was rubbing at his eyes. There was so much irritation that he still couldn't open them.

"I did! I said sandpits and death, and what was in there?!" he looked at Amy.

"It wasn't that bad," she said. "I mean, we got out alive."

He stared at her for a long moment as if processing before he pointed at her. "You. You're crazy." He turned around and straightened up. "Welp, time for a bath!"

"A bath?"

"Pfft, you don't think I'm going to walk around all day with itchy, annoying sand in my fur? I'm pretty sure I remember an oasis not far off from here…" He noticed Silver rubbing at his eyes and quickly grabbed the hedgehog's wrists. "Hey, don't do that! You're making it worse!"

"It hurts," he said.

"Because you're making it worse! Come on, you just need to wash it out."

Vincent led them a little way to a big pool of clear water surrounded by plants and palm trees. "Ah yes," he took in the smell of water and plants. "The only good thing in this desert. Okay, let's get you fixed up." He led Silver to the water.

He flinched slightly as his foot splashed in the water. "I can't swim."

"I know," Vincent said. "But you don't need to go that deep. Not that swimming is very difficult…"

Silver hesitated a moment but allowed Vincent to lead him further into the water. He had started to feel a bit apprehensive as the water reached his waist and was relieved that Vincent had stopped.

Vincent cupped water in his hands and carefully rubbed the grit from the hedgehog's eyes. Silver tensed for a moment then relaxed and started to open his eyes a little. He squinted and blinked a lot before beginning to wash his eyes out himself. "Um, thanks," he mumbled.

"No problem!" Vincent promptly sat in the water, accidentally splashing Silver a bit.

.

Silver was squatted down watching a small brown lizard that was clinging to the base of a tree. The tiny creature was bobbing its head up and down and extending a red frill from its neck. Silver glanced over at another lizard perched on a nearby rock that was displaying the same behavior. He looked back; the one on the tree was now opening its mouth at the other in an aggressive manner. "What are they doing?" he asked.

Vincent shrugged. "Displaying dominance. The one on the rock is probably an intruder, so now they're arguing over who's in charge."

"Sonic must have gone back to the city," Amy was talking to herself. She was pacing around the water's edge and looking thoughtful.

"Good," Vincent said, "because that's where we're going. We're not going to follow you anymore!"

"Why not?"

"Are you kidding?!"

**To be continued…**

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**Vincent hates sand. In the game, Sonic fights Egg Cerberus (robo dog), but Shadow already blew that one up. So, I made up a jaguar robot instead! This is not the last we will see of that cat.**


	7. Chapter 6: Time Travelers

**This story is actually complete. I'll be uploading the rest soon. It's only 12 chapters (technically 13). Now I get to work on the real story. The 100% my own original plots and stuff. That one will probably be kinda long over all.**

* * *

"Ya know," Amy said as she looked around the streets and through the alleyways. "I was going to suggest heading back here to the city anyway."

"Sure you were," Vincent followed with Silver a few steps behind him. The wolf was back to his friendly and nonchalant nature now that he didn't have sand in his fur.

"Sonic's close, I know it."

Silver stopped as he noticed something in the corner of his eye. He turned in time to see a blue figure disappear behind a building and heading toward the plaza. Without hesitating or even a word to the others, he took off after the figure.

.

"Pretty soon you'll be back safe and sound in that fancy castle of yours," Sonic said.

Elise nodded. "Yes. Thank you again for saving me."

"Aw, it was nothing! I've handled Eggman lots of times before." He stopped suddenly; there was a sense of danger all of a sudden. He quickly jumped out of the way as a strange blast of energy struck where he had been moments ago.

"I've finally found you." A white hedgehog was slowly descending to the ground. "Iblis trigger!"

"What?" Sonic stood up straight. "Who are you?"

"My name is Silver," the stranger replied. "I've come from the future to stop you from destroying my world!"

"Future? What's going on here?"

"Don't try to play games with me!" Silver clenched his fist and several surrounding tables and chairs were lifted into the air with a green glow.

Sonic dashed out of the way as each object flew at him and crashed on the ground with so much force that they split into pieces. "You're serious! Alright, here I come!"

Sonic curled into a rapidly spinning ball and flew with great speed at the attacker. Silver reacted with surprising speed. "It's no use!" He held his hand forward and easily caught the other with his psychokinesis then flung him aside with great force behind it. Sonic's back hit a nearby wall with enough force to wind him and cause him to collapse.

"Hmph. Is this a joke?" Silver approached him and looked down at him with contempt. "_You're _the cause of the world's destruction?

"What…are you talking about?" Sonic huffed.

Silver shook his head. "It doesn't matter." He was preparing to attack again when a scream caught both of their attention. They looked and saw Elise being snatched up by one of Eggman's robots.

"Elise!" Sonic shakily got to his feet as the robot turned to fly away.

"Don't you dare turn your back on me!" Silver hit him from behind with another blast of energy then held him down with his powers. "You're not going anywhere!"

"Stop it!" Amy had suddenly run out between them and faced Silver.

Surprised, he accidentally released his hold on the blue hedgehog who slowly got back to his feet. "Get out of my way, Amy." He demanded calmly.

"Absolutely not!" she stood her ground and glared at him. "I won't let you hurt Sonic!"

Silver was frustrated and stunned. The whole time they had been looking for the same person? Why was she protecting him?

Sonic caught his breath and glanced back at them. "Thanks Amy," he muttered before taking off after Elise.

Silver took a step but she blocked him again. "You were attacking him!" she said. "Were you going to…kill him?"

"It's for the fate of the world! If I don't stop the Iblis trigger then the world will be destroyed!"

"No!" she shouted. "Sonic would never!" She ran off a bit then stopped and looked back at him. "You're wrong! If it came to a choice between Sonic and the world, then I choose Sonic!" She turned and left quickly.

He almost tried to call her back but couldn't find any words. He was completely shocked and confused. He turned upon hearing footsteps and saw Vincent walking over to him.

"So, by stopping him you meant murder?" Rather than being upset or disturbed, the wolf looked thoughtful.

"Murder?" Silver turned to face him completely. "He's the cause of the disaster! If I stop him to save the world, is that murder?"

"Legally, yes." Vincent shrugged then he sighed and shook his head. "Look, I don't know if that's the right thing to do or not. Where I come from, my clan believed that nothing and no one ever deserved death, no matter what. Of course, that doesn't mean we wouldn't have killed someone to protect…well, this is kind of different. So, what are you going to do now?" Silver was silently looking at the ground. "Well," Vincent said after a moment. "Maybe you should take some time to think. Let's go to New City, it's on the other side of the mountain."

.

Sonic had ended up watching as the robot that had taken the princess flew away over the mountains.

"Sonic!"

He turned. "Tails, where have you been?"

"Trying to figure out what Eggman is really up to while you rescued the princess."

He turned back in the direction that the robot had gone. "Well, I did but he's got her again. I need to figure out where they've gone this time."

"That might be sooner than you think," Tails told him. "I just met Knuckles in New City. He said he has a message from Dr. Eggman for you! He said to meet him at the warehouse district. I'll show you where it's at."

Sonic nodded. "Lead the way!"

He followed Tails through the mountain tunnel that led to the other half of the city. This area was more modern that the other and filled with tall buildings and skyscrapers. Tails led him all the way through the city to the other end where a large section was blocked by a barbed wire fence.

"This is the warehouse district," Tails told him. "They don't want thieves getting in, so the gate is locked and the fence is tall and barbed."

"Well if Knuckles got in then we can definitely get in," Sonic grinned. He rolled himself into a ball and bounced up and over the fence with ease. Tails glanced around to check for guards before spinning his two tails like a propeller and lifting into the air.

They walked between the storage units and cargo holds until they encountered a red figure staring out at the ocean. "Hey there!" Sonic called his attention. "You've got a message for me?"

He turned and looked at them before casually tossing him a strange card. "Eggman showed up and wanted me to give you that."

Sonic caught the object and looked at it. A holographic image of the doctor appeared from it as a recording began to play. "Sonic. I trust this message finds you well. I have a proposition for you. Come to my base in White Acropolis and hand over that Chaos Emerald you've been holding onto. Once you do, I'll let the princess go free. We'll be expecting you." The image dispersed.

Sonic tossed the card back to an unexpecting Knuckles who awkwardly juggled it for a moment before dropping it and purposefully stepping on it. "What was that about?" the echidna asked.

"It's most definitely a trap," Tails warned. "What should we do?"

Sonic thought for a moment. "Hm. I think we should take his offer and go from there. We don't seem to have any other choice." He looked to Knuckles. "You coming?"

Knuckles raised his hands and shook his head. "Fine, whatever. Someone'll have to get you out of trouble I guess."

.

Upon their arrival at the snowy fortress, several robots blocked their way. They braced themselves as the machines looked them over before lowering their weapons and slowly stepping aside. "He did say they were expecting us," Sonic relaxed a bit, but he kept an eye on the robots as they walked through.

Inside the walls of the fortress a tall mantis-like robot stood before them. It was white with black accents and scythe-like blades for front limbs. It tilted its head and stared down at them for a long moment before turning and walking to a large door that slid open upon its approach. It turned to look at them.

"Guess it'll show us the way," Sonic exchanged a look with Tails who seemed apprehensive.

The seven-foot tall mantis waited for them to come closer before turning and entering the building. It silently led them through long hallways and past locked doors; every now and again it would tilt its head in an odd way to make sure they were still following.

Finally, they reached a door that slid open and the mantis stopped and stepped to the side. It stood very still and peered down at them through its eye lenses as they passed by it to enter the room.

The room was fairly sized and round in shape. There was nothing inside other than a small pedestal in the center of the floor and a strange thick rod directly above it on the ceiling. There was also a large rectangular glass window on the wall above them.

The door behind them slid shut as Eggman appeared on the other side of the window with Elise. "Well, hello there! So kind of you to show up!"

"Elise!" Sonic called. "Let her go!"

"Ah, but first…" He waited for the hedgehog to show him the blue emerald. "Good." He pointed at the pedestal. "Place it there."

"Don't!" Elise shouted, but Sonic had placed it already.

"There," he looked up at them. "Now let her go."

Eggman laughed. "Foolish little hedgehog! Did you really think it would be that easy?"

Three little claws suddenly gripped the emerald on the pedestal and blue sparks began to emit from the gem. The rod on the ceiling began to glow with an odd sound then swallowed the three in a flurry of sparks and light before they vanished.

"No!" Elise had her hands pressed against the glass. She slowly slumped to her knees.

"Don't worry," Eggman said. "They're not dead…yet."

.

"Where in the world are we?" Rouge looked around.

They had suddenly appeared in some kind of decrepit building filled with ash and rust. Nearby was a large shattered window. Violet walked over to the window and was shocked. "Look at this!"

Rouge and Shadow peered out of the window as well. They appeared to be on a top floor in some old skyscraper of sorts. Below was a city of broken and collapsed buildings, many of which were engulfed in flames. "What are _those_?" Rouge pointed. There were several strange creatures crawling along the collapsed bridges and buildings. They were quadrupedal with lizard-like tails and bodies that appeared to be made of fire and rock.

"Mephiles…" Violet slowly turned away from the window in deep thought. "I didn't think he would be able to do this on his own. I thought only Solaris…"

"You know what's going on?" Shadow rounded on her. "Who is Mephiles?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Violet turned on him as well and returned the aggression. "Watch your tone!" She quickly recomposed herself and took a deep breath. "Neither of you were supposed to have anything to do with this."

"With what?" Rouge asked. "And what do you have to do with it?"

Violet studied them for a moment before speaking. "It's not the easiest explanation. I don't even know all of the details. All I know is that Mephiles is one of two powerful beings that was sealed away a long time ago. I didn't think he could, but it seems like he sent us through time and space."

"Now the question is when and where," Rouge sighed. Shadow eyed the wolf suspiciously. He was sure there was more to it than she had said. "Let's have a look around, shall we?" Rouge walked into the nearby hallway.

Violet and Shadow didn't move, neither trusted the other behind their back. They glared silently at each other for a long moment before Violet twitched her ear impatiently and promptly walked after the bat. Shadow followed several feet behind.

The dusty halls were long and dark. All of the rooms they passed were empty or filled with useless things or items far too old and damaged to be of any good. Eventually, they noticed a light creeping through the crack in a door up ahead and entered the room.

"Well, well," Rouge looked around the room then approached the still working terminal.

"This is the Doctor's lab," Shadow noted.

Rouge nodded. "But it's ruined. This computer might tell us something." She fiddled with the keys until the screen popped up with several pictures and reports. "Oh!" she was shocked.

"What is it?" Shadow asked.

"These reports are talking about an incident that occurred," Rouge told them. "It says that after Dr. Eggman kidnapped the princess, his ship crashed and killed them. Hm…the information here gets hazy, so I'm not sure why or how everything ended up like it is outside. Oh my! This report is dated over two-hundred years ago!"

"So we really are in the future," Shadow mused. He noticed Violet peering out the door. "What is it?"

Her ear twitched upon hearing him and she looked at them. "I heard something fall further down this hall. Someone else might be here."

.

Sonic stood up straight and looked around. They seemed to be in the same room but everything was damaged and rusted and the glass window was busted out.

Knuckles lifted himself from the ground and shook his head. Tails was sitting with a dazed look. "Oh, my head…" the fox carefully got to his feet.

"What happened?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know," Sonic replied. "It all looks pretty much the same, but…"

"Oh no," Tails said. "Eggman must have used the Chaos Emerald to warp us through time!"

"But how far?" Knuckles crossed his arms.

"Well look who it is!" They looked up at the open window to see three figures looking down at them. The bat waved with a smile.

"Rouge!" Tails said. "Shadow!"

Violet peered down at them with a worried look. "Oh dear… Urah never said so many people would end up in this…"

"Hey Shadow," Sonic smiled at the wolf. "Who's your new friend?"

Before anyone could respond Violet spoke instead. "We are NOT friends. And my name is Violet."

"Oh sorry. Well I'm Sonic! This is Knuckles and Tails." Tails waved while Knuckles just nodded.

"Violet and Shadow don't seem to get along very well," Rouge told the others with a smirk. "Isn't it cute?"

Violet ignored her. "How did you three get here? Are any of you hurt?"

"We had a run in with Doctor Eggman," Sonic said. "You know him?"

"No, but I've met him," Violet jumped down and quickly went over to Tails. He tensed, feeling his face get hot as the wolf looked him over. "Are you sure you're not hurt?"

"Uh, I'm fine! Really!"

She quickly looked over Knuckles and Sonic before nodding. "We should probably head outside to get a better lay of things. Then we can figure out what to do."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Sonic gave her a thumbs-up.

**To be continued…**

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**Violet being feisty. Ha. She's actually super nice and caring under that front.**


	8. Chapter 7: Through Fire and Flames

"I can't believe it," Sonic surveyed the city. "What caused everything to turn out like this?"

"We have to get back to before Eggman's ship crashed," Tails said.

"How?" Rouge asked.

"If we can trigger chaos control," Shadow thought aloud, "then we should be able to travel back in time."

"We need at least two Chaos Emeralds for that," Tails said. "They could be anywhere."

Violet was standing on the edge of a metal beam sticking out from the broken concrete and staring off at something with her ears pricked forward. "Conveniently, there _are _two nearby." They all looked to her as she pointed. "There, and…somewhere over there." She looked back at them and noticed their bewildered expressions. She shifted her feet awkwardly. "It's um…just a feeling."

"We're going to go on a feeling?" Knuckles exchanged a glance with Sonic who shrugged.

"It's all we've got," he said. "Let's split up and head in both directions. Whichever group finds one first can meet the other at their spot."

"Well," Rouge smiled. "I'll bet we'll find it first since the one who knows where they are is on our side."

"I can only sense their general location," Violet said quietly as if she was embarrassed.

.

"We should move quickly," Violet said. "I have a bad feeling about this, and those monsters are everywhere."

"I'll take to the air," Rouge told them. She noticed the quick look of concern that crossed Violet's face. "Don't worry, I'll keep within shouting distance. It might be better to have a bird's eye view."

"Be careful," Violet told her. "I saw some bird-like monsters flying around."

They watched her fly off around a building. Violet sighed then jumped slightly when she noticed that Shadow was staring at her. "Y-yes?"

He was silent for a long moment. "Let's go."

"Ah, right." She couldn't figure out this guy. At least now he didn't seem angry like before.

.

"It's close," Violet stopped and looked up at a tall building. "Up there, maybe?" She suddenly noticed a slight tremor beneath her feet. "Something's coming!" she rushed out of the way as something burst from the concrete where she had been standing.

A large worm-like monster with three large mandibles had broken through the ground and let out a strange growl. Like the other monsters, its body appeared to be made up of magma and rock. Its lower half still underground, the worm craned its neck as if to look down at them.

The worm convulsed oddly before spitting a ball of magma at them. They dodged in opposite directions and Shadow quickly threw something that appeared to be made of light that struck the creature's mouth as it tried to spew another attack. The magma in its mouth burst and it let out a gurgling growl as it quickly retreated below ground.

"What did you do to it?" Violet watched the hole from which it had appeared, half expecting it to come back.

"I used a Chaos Spear," he said. "Hmph, that monster was pathetic."

"That's like calling a wasp pathetic for getting eaten by a bird." She shook her head. "It's just an animal defending its territory."

"It was in the way," he said. "It doesn't matter."

"Fine," she said calmly.

"It attacked first."

"I know," she said. "I was just saying, there's no need to look down on it for being weaker than you. Like I said, it's an animal."

"Yoo-hoo!" They looked up to see Rouge descending from the nearby building. "Look what I found!" She proudly showed them the green emerald.

Violet nodded. "Okay, let's go catch up with the others."

Rouge was greatly admiring her find as they continued. Violet found her obsession to be rather humorous. As they crossed under an overhanging building, Violet noticed something covered in dust and soot. "What's that?"

"Omega?" Rouge was surprised to see the robot sitting there. "What's _he _doing here?"

Shadow quickly went over to the stationary robot and fiddled with a hidden control panel on its back. "He's in standby mode," he said. "I can't wake him…"

"But why?" Rouge tilted her head. "Well, there's nothing we can do for him now. We should keep going."

Violet noticed Shadow's reluctance to leave the robot before he followed them. "Standby mode," she said as they walked. "That means he's asleep?"

"Sort of," Shadow replied.

"Then," she stopped and looked at him. "That means he should be fine. He didn't seem damaged, just a little dusty." He stared at her for a long moment before nodding and they continued walking.

.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were standing at the edge of the city. Ahead of them was a dark, crag-filled ravine, and towering over it in the distance was an active volcano. "There you are," Sonic said as Shadow, Rouge, and Violet appeared. "About time!"

"Look!" Rouge showed them her emerald. "I told you we'd find one first. After all, I'm a real treasure hunter. Unlike a certain _echidna _I know."

"What!?" Knuckles growled.

"Hmph!" she turned her head away from him and he stomped away from her.

Ignoring them, Tails spoke to Violet. "We followed your direction, but we ended up coming to this place."

Violet looked over at the ravine, her gaze steadily rising towards the volcano. "It's somewhere over there."

"The volcano?" Tails looked worried.

"You mean we gotta go through there?!" Rouge was staring at the craggy ravine.

"If you don't like it you can stay here," Knuckles said bitterly.

"Fat chance!"

"Okay," Sonic walked ahead. "Let's get a move on!" He stopped by Shadow. "Don't be late."

"Same to you," he retaliated and brushed past him.

"Hopefully no one gets burned alive…" Violet sighed to herself.

.

As they moved further through the ravine, the volcano's tremors became more frequent. As they got closer, it would erupt more often, spewing large magma rocks across the ravine. They would have to dodge or take shelter each time.

"There's something else…" Violet said as they waited under an overhang for the eruption to cease. "Something's trying to keep us away."

"I'll say," Rouge stepped further under cover as a large rock crashed into the ground nearby.

"Hurry," Shadow dashed from the cover as soon as the shaking had stopped.

They ran the rest of the way through the ravine until the crags and walls had been left behind them. They had to stop upon finding that the end of the ravine was a sheer cliff. Below was a vast river of flowing lava.

The ground began to shake again. "We'll have to jump," Violet said.

"What?!" Rouge stared at her. "Down there?"

"At least you can fly," she said. "Yes, down there. There are large stones that are being carried by the lava flow. We can use those." The shaking grew more violent. "There's no other way. Hurry up!" She jumped from the cliff.

Violet landed roughly on a semi-flat rock that was being pushed by the lava. She had to brace herself as it rocked from the sudden impact and splashed lava around. She watched the others land on another flowing platform ahead of her then carefully stood up.

"Okay," Rouge balanced herself as the platforms rocked. "This is taking us backwards."

Violet braced herself then jumped to the platform with them. "Then fly!" She ran and jumped to another rock ahead of them then glanced back at Shadow with a smirk. "Don't fall in!"

"She almost sounds like she's enjoying this," Rouge muttered and watched Shadow leap after the wolf. "Is she antagonizing him?"

At some point, despite her best stubborn effort, Shadow had passed Violet and ended up just ahead of her. He paused for a brief moment to glance back at her before jumping up onto a still platform jutting from the base of the volcano.

"I feel like you were going easy on me," she huffed as she leapt up beside him.

"What?" Rouge flew down to meet them. "Were you _playing_?"

Violet held back a laugh but couldn't hide her mischievous smirk. "No. I was quite serious about getting here first."

"Honestly," Rouge shook her head then looked to Shadow. "And you went along with it!"

"There's an entrance above us," he looked up at a gaping hole in the wall.

"Don't ignore me!"

The interior of the volcano was abnormal. It consisted of many chambers and tunnels; some led to areas completely filled with lava while others were filled with strange bridges and platforms carved from lava that once flowed there.

They ended up meeting with Sonic and friends as they headed for the last chamber. This chamber was absolutely massive with a high ceiling. The floor was nothing but lava and large stone platforms that seemed to have once been stalactites until they fell. Floating in the air just out of reach was a shining emerald.

"Look," Rouge said. "I found a Chaos Emerald!"

"Don't touch it!" Shadow snapped suddenly.

Rouge barely had enough time to move out of the way as a massive worm-like creature burst from the lava and snatched up the emerald in its jaws before diving back in.

"What is that thing!?" Sonic shouted.

"That's what was giving off that other energy," Violet said.

The monster had reappeared at the other end of the chamber. It was much larger than the creature Violet and Shadow had encountered and hiding between the three claw-like mandibles was a face that almost resembled a dragon or dinosaur. It lifted its upper half from the lava and watched them intently through three big green eyes.

"Its eyes…" Violet felt like she had seen them before.

"It took the Chaos Emerald!" Tails said.

"Then let's take it back!" Sonic replied.

The monster let out a bellowing roar as if in response. "Could that be…" Violet was staring hard at the creature. "Iblis?"

"Who?" Rouge looked at her.

"It's an ancient being that was sealed away," she explained quickly. "Whatever happened in the past freed it, and Iblis must be the reason for the world's state. Iblis's power is referred to as the Flames of Disaster."

"Iblis?" Sonic felt he had heard that name before.

"Enough talking," Knuckles shouted. "It's attacking!"

Iblis flung its head up and launched magma rocks at the group. They were moving fast, but luckily the distance allowed everyone to get out of the way in time. The rocks crashed into the platform with a loud sound and shattered into pieces.

"We can't do anything from here," Knuckles clenched his teeth.

"It seemed to like that Chaos Emerald," Sonic said and nodded to Rouge.

"You've got to be kidding," she said. "You do it!" She tossed him the emerald.

He caught the emerald and jumped several platforms away until he had reached one that was taller than the rest. He held the emerald up, its light glowering brightly, and called, "Hey! Come and get it!"

The monster's eye caught sight of the emerald and it dove back into the lava. Sonic watched the surface, but the lava gave no hints of where Iblis was. Suddenly, it burst from the lava and Sonic jumped down from the platform, narrowly dodging splashing lava as Iblis slammed its mandibles down into the rock. It seemed momentarily confused as it took a moment to start trying to wriggle free.

"He's stuck!" Tails shouted. "Hit him!"

With the mandibles spread around the platform, the large third eye was left vulnerable and noticeable. Sonic leapt back up and gave the monster a rough kick square in the eye. The shock and pain caused it to immediately unlatch its mandibles and throw itself back into the lava with a roar. For a moment, there was no movement, but then the rock-covered back broke the surface some distance away and started moving faster and faster towards the platforms.

"Look out, he's coming back!"

Sonic jumped from rock to rock, hearing the monster crashing into the platforms just behind him as he ran. He kept going, trying to avoid leading it to the others, until it had begun to steer off course then stop completely.

"It's dazed from the impact," Knuckles said. "Finish it now!"

Iblis was slumped over with its large head resting on a platform. It was so big that they could hear its deep breaths. This time, Shadow dashed ahead and fiercely threw a Chaos Spear at its eye that burst in its face like electricity. It threw its head back roughly with a loud roar of pain, in doing so, it launched something shiny from its maw then dove back into the lava.

Sonic picked up the emerald and they all waited for a long quiet minute. There were no signs of Iblis returning. "Alright," he nodded. He and Shadow each took an emerald and crossed them together as they shouted, "Chaos Control!" and a rift appeared. Sonic nodded to him before leaping through the rift, followed by Tails and Knuckles. Rouge followed slowly after.

As Violet moved to go next, she felt a strange presence and turned to see Shadow looking at something. There, watching them from the corner several feet away, was Mephiles. He disappeared around a corner and Shadow quickly followed without hesitation. Violet looked at the disappearing rift then back a few times before growling with annoyance and going after the hedgehog.

She turned the corner and caught up to Shadow. They were in a smaller chamber now where several strange purple stones lit up the darkness.

Shadow was almost surprised to see her. "What are you doing?"

"What are _you_ doing?" she retaliated. "How do you expect to get back after that rift closes?"

"I need answers," he said simply and turned away.

"Don't we all?" the familiar sinister voice chimed in. Mephiles had appeared at the other side of the room.

"You," Shadow said. "Are you the reason this world ended up destroyed?"

"Yes…and no," he replied calmly. "Perhaps it would be better to show you." He gestured to one of the stones and a figure appeared. The figure was locked inside of a strange chamber and appeared to be in some form of sleep or stasis.

"That's…me?"

"Yes…" Mephiles said. "What do you think happened after the Flames of Disaster was released? They searched for a culprit. And who better to blame it all on but the 'ultimate weapon'? After all…they not only envied your power, they feared it. They hated it. The incident was all the proof they needed to get rid of you for good."

"That's absurd!" Shadow growled. "Don't bother trying to deceive me, I know who I am!"

"It was you," Violet glared at Mephiles. "You just conveniently used Shadow's likeness and had it all blamed on him! It doesn't matter though, because that timeline is about to be erased!"

"Such foolishness…" Mephiles rose into the air and his appearance suddenly changed. He had turned a deep purple color with pale stripes and crystal-like objects covering the ends of his spikes and claws. His eyes had turned a bright red with yellow-green irises. "I'm your shadow…" he said as he vanished and strange shadowy creatures began to fill the room and surround them. "You can't even touch me."

Violet pulled out her blue sword hilt and tightly gripped the handle. A large blue blade suddenly sprouted from it covered with a frosty mist. "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to go back to sleep."

"Foolish," Mephiles' voice could be heard as the shadows swirled around the room, laughing. "I will not be sealed away again!"

They leapt out of the way as several shadows tried to jump on them. Violet swung her sword and it blasted a chilling wave of frost that swept away a good chunk of the creatures, but more had soon taken their place.

"It doesn't matter how many of them you defeat you know," Mephiles said.

As he moved, Shadow quickly noticed that his shadow was no longer his own. Mephiles was there in it, commanding these strange and annoying creatures. "Coward," Shadow growled. He glowed red for a moment as a burst of chaos energy blasted from his body and forced Mephiles to flee his shadow.

Mephiles was now floating in the air some distance from them with many of his shadow creatures moving to surround him. "Dance my shadows, dance!" More of the creatures launched themselves at Shadow and Violet while Mephiles laughed wickedly.

"Enough already!" Violet gritted her teeth and gave her weapon a mighty swing. The blast from the sword this time was much larger and vaster, and it swept away the creatures around Mephiles and momentarily left him without guard.

Seeing an opportunity, Shadow threw a Chaos Spear at him. The attack landed, and the electricity succeeded in momentarily immobilizing Mephiles which caused him to fall to the ground. The shadowy creatures had dispersed suddenly, and Shadow made his way to Mephiles. As he neared, Mephiles quickly retaliated with a blast of dark energy that sent Shadow flying into one of the hard, glowing stones.

"Shadow!" Violet gasped. Her attention was brought back to the enemy as he shot a large shadowy ball in her direction that knocked her over. She had dropped her sword and the blade disappeared as the hilt slid across the ground.

"Foolish," Mephiles said as he walked over to Shadow who had just recovered and was getting to his feet. Mephiles prepared another ball of energy in his hand as he approached, but he lost it as he was forced to leap back to avoid a spray of bullets.

The dusty robot from before had appeared and was targeting Mephiles. "Shadow the Hedgehog," it said in a mechanical voice. "Rouge requested me to assist you. She wanted me to give you this." He produced the green Chaos Emerald and held it out to the hedgehog.

"Omega?" he took the emerald.

Violet righted herself. "That's the emerald she left through the portal with." She looked up at the robot. "You were in standby mode…from the past?"

"Correct," he replied then turned to face Mephiles again. "Assisting in progress."

"You're just a nuisance…robot," Mephiles said as his shadows reappeared around them.

"So are you," Violet snatched up her weapon and the blade reappeared as well.

Violet decided to focus on clearing the creatures out of the way, leaving moments where Shadow and Omega had clear shots at Mephiles. Noticing this, the two took advantage of her sweeps and attacked. Mephiles let loose several balls of energy that blasted towards them, but Omega had countered them with small rockets that blew them up before the reached them. Shadow reached him and attacked with a hard blow that once again knocked Mephiles from the air and caused the shadows to disperse.

Mephiles lifted himself up, shakily getting to his feet and gave them all a look of pure hatred before producing a large vortex around himself.

"He's teleporting again!" Violet said.

The three rushed to him but only made it in time to be caught in the warp and appear in a lively city. They were suddenly back in their time, in New City, but Mephiles was nowhere in sight.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**My best friend greatly enjoys the interactions between Violet and Shadow because "they're both socially awkward in a way." This is true.**


	9. Chapter 8: Snow

Silver was sitting on the steps that led down to the docks in New City. Behind him stood Vincent. Both were staring silently out at the ocean. Vincent's ear twitched at the sound of footsteps and he turned to see a pinkish-purple cat approaching. "Oh, hello!"

Silver barely glanced back at them. "Blaze?"

"There you are," she said. "I've been looking for you."

"Ah," Vincent smiled. "So you're the friend-sister!"

"The what?"

"Well, you know him better than me," the wolf looked back at Silver. "He's been abnormally quiet for the past hour."

She tilted her head to look at Silver. "What's wrong?"

He remained silent for a moment before deciding to ask her. "Blaze… Is it wrong to kill someone to save the world?"

She sighed and shook her head. "You're no naïve. Whether it's wrong or right, I don't know. But I do know that if we don't take this chance now, then the future will remain exactly as it is."

After a minute, Silver nodded and stood up. "Okay. He was after someone called Dr. Eggman. If we find that guy, we might find him too."

"Dr. Eggman," Vincent thought aloud. "A few days ago, my sister told me about some kind of fortress in White Acropolis. It's a snowy place not far off, but I think there's a train that goes there. We can hitch a ride!" Silver nodded then Vincent turned back to Blaze. "Wow, how rude of me! My name is Vincent. I've been looking after Silver since he got here."

She nodded. "Thanks. He usually gets insecure on his own."

"H-hey!" Silver said. "Let's just go already!"

.

Vincent and Blaze watched as Silver moved around the train looking out of all the windows at everything passing by. "Would you sit down already?" Blaze said. "You're acting like a child."

"Nothing wrong with that," Vincent chuckled as Silver pressed his nose against a window.

"Look at these mountains!" Silver gasped.

Vincent turned to Blaze. "He's kind of excitable, huh?"

"You don't even know the half of it."

It didn't take long for the train to reach its destination. Through the windows they could see white flecks that had begun to fall all around. "What is that stuff?" Silver asked.

"It's snow," Vincent told him. "Semi-frozen water. Complete opposite of what you're probably used to."

"_Attention," _a voice said throughout the train. _"We have reached White Acropolis. Please exit now, or remain seated until our next stop. Thank you."_

Vincent quickly exited the train and stretched happily. "Ah, snow! I love the cold!"

Silver carefully stepped out, surprised at his feet sinking into the white-covered ground. He looked around at the gray sky and held out his hands to let the snow fall on him. "This is amazing," he said. "It's so cold."

Blaze held her hand out and watched the snowflakes melt in her palm. "It is pretty," she admitted.

Vincent suddenly jumped down into the snow on all fours, rolled over, and started making a snow angel. "Snow is the best!"

Silver bent down and scooped up a bunch of the snow in his hands. He stared at it for a long moment before walking over to Vincent and casually dropping it on the wolf.

"Hey!" He flung snow at the hedgehog.

"Ah!"

"You two," Blaze said disapprovingly. "We don't have time for playing. Where is this fortress?"

Vincent jumped to his feet and shook the snow from his pelt, causing some of it to get on Silver. "Through that forest," he pointed at large cluster of snow-topped trees.

As they moved through the forest, Vincent seemed to be on the alert about something. He kept looking in different directions with his ears pricked forward and staring hard between the trees. All of sudden, he bolted away into the dark forest, leaving Silver and Blaze standing there stunned. After a few moments, he returned carrying something fuzzy and white in his arms. "Look! I caught a bunny!"

The rabbit lifted its head to look at them, its nose twitching rapidly with curiosity and mild confusion. They went over to examine the animal.

Silver stared at it and carefully prodded its side with a finger. "It's almost as fuzzy as you," he said absentmindedly.

Vincent laughed then placed the rabbit down and watched it go back into the deeper parts of the forest. "Okay, sorry." He noticed Blaze watching them. "Geez, you remind me of my sister…"

Soon after, they reached the end of the forest and found a metal wall. Vincent examined the wall then nodded. "Mm-hm! This will be easy for Fire Rune." He produced an orange sword hilt and a large flaming blade suddenly sprouted from it. He stabbed the sword into the wall, the magical fire easily melting the metal, and carved a large circle. After retracting the blade, he kicked the circle and it fell in, leaving a hole in the wall.

"That was some trick!" Silver said.

Vincent grinned broadly. "Come on, let's see what's inside."

The area mostly seemed abandoned but rather recently as the snow had yet to cover many of the tracks on the ground. They looked around at the collapsed light towers and a large robotic dog laying covered in snow. "Looks like he ate something nasty," Vincent pointed out the blown-out bottom jaw and throat.

"There doesn't seem to be anyone here," Blaze said. "We should-"

She was interrupted by a loud roar that echoed across the area. Crawling over a wall was the robotic jaguar from the desert. "Not you again!" Silver said.

Vincent pulled out Fire Rune once again, the heat from the blade giving off steam in the cold air. "Alright, fine! Let's finish this!"

The jaguar growled and lunged towards them. Vincent poised his sword and stood his ground as the robot charged. Once it was upon him, he sidestepped and clipped its front leg. The sword's fiery blade easily cut through part of the leg and caused the jaguar to trip and tumble over itself in a flurry of snow.

It got up, leaning heavily on its uninjured legs and tried its attack again. Once again, Vincent was ready, and he dashed under it and sliced through a hind leg. The robot stumbled around pitifully but turned to face them again. "This is depressing," Vincent said sadly. "I was trying to spare you, but you won't stay down."

"I'll finish it then!" Silver used his powers to lift the collapsed dog robot and launched it at the jaguar.

With two legs slowly melting, the robot couldn't get out of the way as the other crashed heavily into it and both went flying across the area. For a moment after, the jaguar struggled beneath the dog before twitching and laying still.

"Dude!" Vincent shouted. "You just picked up that giant robo dog and threw it!"

"Y-yeah?"

Just as Vincent had picked up his sword, a large white and black robot landed hard behind them. The mantis peered down at them, watching them brace themselves for another fight. It tilted its head from side to side a few times before leaning forward and producing a blue gem from its chest. It watched them expectantly.

"What is it doing?" Silver asked.

"Looks like he wants you to take that," Vincent relaxed slightly.

Silver very carefully stepped forward and grabbed the item. He stared up at the mantis the whole time then stepped back from it and examined the gem.

"That's a Chaos Emerald," Blaze said. "They're supposed to have the power to control time and space."

"Yeah," Vincent said. "But why's he just giving it to you?"

The robot tilted its head again then turned and began to leave. "Keep it," Blaze told Silver. "It might come in handy. Think of it as a lucky charm."

Vincent watched the robot for a bit. "Well, let's head back to the city for now."

Silver and Blaze nodded their agreement.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**I like my mantis robot. He's mysterious. Btw, his name is RAZR-X. Razr for short.**


	10. Chapter 9: The Solaris Project

As they exited the train back at New City's terminal, they noticed a dark figure standing alone. "Mephiles?" Silver said as they approached the figure.

Mephiles didn't even look at them. He only pointed in the direction of another terminal. "You still haven't succeeded in your mission. Your target has just left to follow a train."

Silver exchanged a glance with Blaze before asking, "Mephiles, this Sonic…the Iblis trigger. Is he really a bad person?"

There was an uncomfortable feeling as Mephiles slowly turned his head to look at him. He stared at him for a long moment before responding. "Why does it matter? If you still want to save the future…"

"Of course I do! It's just…never mind."

Mephiles silently watched them go before slinking off into the shadows.

Vincent glanced back to find that Mephiles had vanished. "Could he be the other one?" he muttered to himself.

.

"We seem to be back in our own time," Violet said as she looked around at the city.

"Mephiles appears to have escaped," Omega said. "I will assist in pursuing him."

"There you are!" Rouge came over to them. "Eggman's machines are looking for you," she told Shadow. "What did you do this time?"

"Nothing," he responded. "They're looking for Mephiles."

"What is going on," Omega asked. "Who is Mephiles?"

Shadow shook his head. "I don't know, but I'm going to ask the Doctor directly." He began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Rouge tried to stop him.

"I can do this on my own," he told them. "You focus on getting more information about Mephiles and where he went."

She shook her head as he dashed off. "He finally shows up again then leaves before even saying hello. Hey! Where are _you_ going?" Violet had taken off after Shadow. "Those two…they're both stubborn!" Rouge spoke to the communicator on her wrist. "GUN HQ? I need all the data you have on the item called the Scepter of Darkness."

.

Shadow stopped along the train tracks that curved up along the mountains. The Doctor was supposedly on one of the trains and heading who knows where. He looked back as Violet approached. "What are you doing here?"

"Bugging you," she said casually and walked past him. After a few steps she stopped and turned back to him. "You know, this was all only supposed to involve my brother and myself. But of course, Urah left out the details."

"Who is Urah? And what exactly is going on? Who are you?"

"I'm Violet," she said. "It's all a really long story…and a lot of it I don't want to relive." They stared at each other for a long moment before she nodded and turned away again. "I'll explain later. First, I have to make one-hundred percent sure of who Mephiles is."

"Fine," he walked over and stopped beside her. They watched a peculiar-looking armored train running quickly along the tracks on the other mountainside. "That must be the Doctor's train."

Violet nodded. "It's rather conspicuous. Let's go hitch a ride."

.

Eggman was sitting comfortably in a large chair at the front of the train. There was a sound of metal busting open and something landing behind him. He swiveled the chair around and looked down at the hedgehog and wolf. "Wouldn't the door have been easier? What do you want?"

Violet dusted herself off and Shadow stepped forward. "Who is Mephiles, and what do you want with him?"

"Ah yes," he said. "Well, I'll tell you this much, he's linked to the disaster that occurred ten years ago."

"The Solaris Project?"

"Yes… Tell you what, you capture that troublesome creature and bring him to me. Then I'll tell you everything about it." He turned his chair back around. "Go on then."

Outside, they watched the train keep heading along its course. "You don't really trust that man, do you?" Violet asked.

"We need to know the truth," he said.

She was going to argue but stopped when she noticed something blue following after the train. "Hey, is that Sonic?"

.

Sonic ran quickly after the fast-moving train. He was about to speed up when he noticed something in the corner of his eye and jumped out of the way as a large oil can crashed where he had been. It was the white hedgehog again. "You again?"

Silver went to attack again but stopped in surprise as a black hedgehog landed between them. "Mephiles? Why are you getting in my way?"

"I'm Shadow," he told him. "Shadow the Hedgehog." He glanced back at Sonic who nodded and took off again.

This annoyed Silver. "Get out of my way!"

As the stranger went to attack, Shadow held out the green emerald. "Chaos Control!"

Silver felt as if he was moving in slow-motion. He couldn't even react as the black hedgehog dashed around him and kicked him in the back of the head. He felt everything around him return to normal as he hit the ground and felt the pain from the blow. "No, I can't…" he shakily got to his feet.

"Don't bother," Shadow showed him the gem. "With a Chaos Emerald, I control time and space. You can't escape."

Silver attacked again, but this time, as Shadow went to again, Silver also held up his own emerald and shouted the command. "Chaos Control!"

They both jumped back as a rift flew open where they had connected the gems. "You…induced Chaos Control?" Shadow seemed mildly surprised.

"Whoa," Vincent ran over with Blaze beside him. "What the heck is going on now?"

"Are you alright?" Blaze quietly asked.

"I'm fine," Silver told her.

Violet jumped down and landed beside Shadow. She was surprised to see the blue wolf there. "Vincent?"

"Violet!" he smiled brightly. "Where have you been?"

"Well…things have gotten…complicated."

"Tell me about it," he laughed.

"You know them?" Silver asked.

"Only the wolf," he replied. "That's my sister!"

Silver looked surprised for a moment before returning to his previously annoyed expression. "I don't have time for this! I'm so close to changing the fate of the world!"

"You mentioned Mephiles," Shadow looked at him. "He's just using you. He's not trying to make a better future. He's trying to eliminate the past."

"What are you talking about?"

Shadow glanced at the rift that was now steadily closing. "It seems to know the truth we need to see what happened ten years ago." He nodded to Violet then turned back to Silver. "Follow me if you want the truth." He jumped through the rift.

Violet glanced at her brother. "Come on Vincent," she said before jumping through herself.

Vincent exchanged looks with Silver and Blaze then approached the rift. "Well, if my sister thinks it's a good idea then who am I to argue?"

Silver stared at the rift a long moment before nodding and joining Vincent. "Blaze…"

She nodded. "Go. I'll stay here."

.

Scientists rushed quickly around computers and monitors. The fiery energy that was contained within a large glass tube at the center was begging to swirl madly. The machines began beeping rapidly as a warning. "My Lord," one of them said over the noise. "It's failing! A meltdown is imminent!"

"We need to evacuate the area!" another called.

The king slammed his hands down on a terminal and looked up at the furious blaze of energy. "Why Solaris?! Why won't you listen to my voice?!"

"Father!"

He turned to see his little girl run into the room. "Elise, what-" The alarms grew louder and faster as the contained force began to glow brightly. He rushed over to shield his daughter as glass cracked and the energy blasted free.

.

The four had found themselves in the dark hallway of some strange metal place. Silver and Shadow watched as Vincent hugged his sister tightly and spun around.

"Vincent!" she gasped for air. "If you don't put me down!"

They stopped and looked back as a loud explosion sounded from behind them. They all exchanged quick glances before running towards the source of the sound.

They came to a large circular room where several human bodies lay scattered around the floor. The lights were blown out and broken glass was spread over the floor. At the center of it all was a strange glowing ball of fire and light. A strange black ooze dripped from it and collected on the floor before transforming into a mist-like substance.

"I know that light," Silver said. "That's Iblis!"

"That black mist must be Mephiles," Shadow said.

"They're getting away," Vincent said.

Both the light and the shadow were now rushing away down the opposite hall. "You go after that light," Shadow told Silver and Vincent. "We're going after Mephiles."

"Wait…" a weak voice called out before they could go after them. Shadow hurried over to the man. He was dressed differently from the others. The man shakily held out what Shadow recognized as the Scepter of Darkness. "Seal it with this."

Shadow stared at the man before carefully taking the object. "Hurry!" Silver called and Shadow went to join the others.

Once they got through the other hall, they came to another large room with several doorways that split off into opposite directions. They managed to catch a glimpse of Iblis entering one of them.

Violet was looking at a different doorway, her ears pricked forward intently. "I think Mephiles went that way," she said then exchanged a knowing look with her brother.

Vincent nodded. "Silver, let's go after Iblis."

Vincent and Silver ran through the long hall until reaching yet another room where it split in several directions. The ball of light and fire hovered around the center for a few moments as if debating which direction to go. As if it noticed them approaching, it suddenly chose a direction and flew off down that hallway, leaving behind several small flames.

The flames grew and strange shapes began to form out of them. They rose upwards and took the appearances of strange bird-like creatures that were alight with fire. "Those are like some of the monsters from my world!" Silver said.

"It's trying to stall us so it can find a way to escape," Vincent jumped out of the way as one of the creatures shot at him like a spear.

"Get out my way!" Silver caught the creature with his powers and threw it at the others. The monsters vanished with angry screeches as they collided together. "After it!" Silver hurried to the hall that Iblis had gone down.

After chasing Iblis through several curving hallways and strange chambers, they finally managed to corner it in a small room with no other exits. Silver held the energy in place with his psychokinesis and it began to struggle furiously. He gritted his teeth as he held it down.

Vincent was going to do something, but he realized that whatever was going on right now was supposed to happen. He would have to wait for a different opportunity in the present time. He was surprised to see the older man from before enter the room carrying an unconscious little girl. The man fell to his knees and struggled to get up again. Vincent hurried over to him and noticed blood soaking the man's robes. "What are you doing? You shouldn't move; you're really hurt."

"This…must be done now." The human managed to stand up again and carried the girl to a table. He carefully laid her across it then turned to Iblis and rose his hands. "Great being of fire and light… Use this vessel…and enter an eternal slumber!"

Silver let go as the fire began to swirl downwards towards the child. It appeared to enter her chest and with a final flash of golden light it vanished.

The man gently stroked the unconscious child's head. "Elise… Don't cry Elise. Become a good ruler who never cries… For if you do…the seal will break, and the Flames of Disaster will be freed." He could no longer stand and ended up collapsing to the floor. Silver and Vincent hurried over to him but he brushed them off. "Don't worry about me. But please…take her out of this place."

"What about you?" Vincent looked worried. "You're bleeding out."

"Please…" he said quietly as his eyes slowly closed.

.

Shadow quickly caught up to the dark mist and held the scepter out. A light flashed from it and the mist was now being pulled towards it.

"What…?" a groggy voice said from the mist. "What is this? Stop! Who are you?"

"I'm Shadow the Hedgehog," he replied.

The scepter was now forcefully pulling the mist into itself. "You…Shadow the Hedgehog. That name…that form… I will remember you for this. You will die!" the voice hissed its final promise before being completely absorbed by the scepter.

"So," Violet said to herself. "Mephiles and Iblis are the two halves of Solaris." She noticed Shadow watching her now. "I did promise answers, didn't I? I'll try to explain as simply as possible, since there are a lot of details behind it all. My brother and I are connected to a powerful entity known as Artemis. The spirit of the moon, and the sibling of Solaris. A long time ago, a shaman from our clan told us about these events. About the two halves of Solaris being released and destroying the world." She grabbed the clear gemstone hanging from her necklace. "She gave us these and told us that we would end up having to seal them away again."

"What is that stone?"

"It comes from Artemis itself."

"So, you have to use that in our time to seal Mephiles again."

She nodded. "The only problem is that if we use them at the wrong time, they could end up breaking. That's the only way they can break at all."

"How will you know then?"

"It would have to be when Mephiles is in a very weakened state. Like he was just now. Maybe weaker."

Shadow nodded. "Then I'll take care of that part."

.

Shadow and Violet were waiting outside when Vincent found the exit. Behind him, Silver was carrying the unconscious girl. "Did you do it?" Silver asked.

"Yes," Shadow replied. "And you?"

He nodded. "The Flames are properly sealed."

"Then let's go back."

Silver carefully placed the girl against a nearby tree. He was surprised when Shadow placed the scepter on the ground beside her. "You're leaving it behind?"

"I already know what becomes of it in the future." He held out the green Chaos Emerald.

"I'm going to stick around with Silver for a little longer," Vincent told Violet. "Besides, your boyfriend scares me."

"My what!?" Her brother laughed and she was extremely thankful that the others didn't seem to have heard what he said.

Silver looked at them, confused, then held out the blue emerald.

"Chaos Control!"

Shadow waited for Violet to push her brother over then join him before he jumped through the rift with her just behind him. Vincent laughed and went over to the rift. He stopped and waited for Silver.

The hedgehog had gone back to kneel beside the little girl. He looked down at the blue gem then placed it in her hands. "It's a lucky charm," he said softly before standing and going over to Vincent.

Vincent nodded. "This explains a lot."

**To be continued…**


	11. Chapter 10: Farewells

Silver and Vincent found themselves back in New City where Blaze was waiting for them. "Well, what did you find out?"

"Mephiles is a part of Iblis," Silver said. "He's the one trying to destroy the world."

"Then…what now?"

Vincent exchanged a look with Silver. "That Eggman guy has the princess, and she has Iblis sealed inside of her."

He nodded. "We need to rescue her!"

Blaze thought for a moment. "The people here have been talking about it. I heard some of them mention a place called Kingdom Valley."

"I know where that's at!" Vincent smiled. "Wait 'til you guys see those giant eagles!"

.

Vincent led them through the city to a tunnel that stretched through the mountain, and all the way to the clearing near the forest. He led them to a peculiar area where three pillars stood with gems mounted on their tops. As the wolf approached, the gems glowered and a loud screech echoed from the canyon. Silver braced himself as a massive brown bird soared over to them and stopped just above Vincent. Two more eagles followed in its wake. "These guys can take us to Kingdom Valley," Vincent said. He smirked at Silver. "Relax, they're cool." He raised his hand up and gripped the first eagle's talons. With one big flap of its broad wings, it had taken off again and flew down into the canyon.

The other eagles flexed their claws impatiently as they waited. Silver and Blaze each grabbed hold of an eagle and the birds took off.

"I guess you wouldn't have really needed help flying through this wind," Vincent called back to Silver.

"What?!" he could barely hear anything over the rushing wind. He squinted down at the gray water below. As they traveled through the canyon, he could see large broken towers and bridges sticking out from the water.

The largest eagle suddenly let out another screech. "He says we're landing!" Vincent told them. "He also says that there are a bunch of metal creatures around and we should be careful!"

"Metal creatures?" Blaze was cut off as the birds suddenly dove at a downwards angle.

Before reaching the grassy stone platform, the eagle swooped up again and released its grip on Vincent's hand. Vincent landed neatly, as did Blaze despite being caught off guard at first. As Silver landed, he stumbled forward from the motion but managed to right himself without falling. Without hesitation or acknowledgment of his stumble, he ran ahead and called for them to follow. "Hurry!"

.

Sonic had found himself at the top of a tall tower protruding from the dark water below and surrounded on all sides by Eggman's robots. Suddenly, the robots began to glow a pale green and struggled to move. Moments later, they all burst into pieces and the white hedgehog landed beside him.

"You look like you're in a hurry," Silver said.

Confused, Sonic stood up straight and blinked at him. "What's going on?"

Silver looked away. "Things have changed. We need to rescue the princess." Vincent and Blaze landed beside them.

Sonic glanced between them and nodded. "Alright, let's go!"

As they neared the large air ship, something large and white landed before them, almost landing on top of them. The robotic mantis straightened and towered over them. It stared down at them through big glass eyes.

"I thought you were on our side!" Silver snapped.

The mantis twitched its antennas then slowly turned to watch the air ship. The large ship was smoking profusely with its engines on fire. It was going down fast.

"Wait," Vincent said before Sonic could go after it. "It's already too late. The ship will have crashed into the mountainside and probably blown up before you get there."

They watched defeatedly as the ship disappeared behind a mountain. There was a loud sound and huge clouds of smoke could be seen rising from the other side.

Vincent noticed large black letters along the robot's side. "Razr-X…" It jerked its head to look at him. "Is that your name? You knew this was going to happen?"

It stared at them for a long minute as if contemplating something then leaned forward and produced something from its chest. It was a large white gem.

"A Chaos Emerald," Sonic was surprised and looked down at his own emerald.

"That's it!" Silver said suddenly and accepted the gem from the robot. "We can use the Chaos Emeralds to go back earlier in the day!"

"Yeah," Sonic smiled. "And since I know where to go now, I can get there in time!" They crossed the emeralds, "Chaos Control!" and a rift opened. Sonic stopped and looked at Silver. "You guys have your own things to take care of, right? Go ahead. Just leave this to me!"

Silver stared at him. "How do you…" he nodded. "Okay. Sonic…make sure you save her."

He gave Silver a thumbs-up and jumped into the rift.

Vincent let out a long sigh and turned to face Silver. "Well, since you guys are going back, or uh, forward to your time, I think I'll go find my sister and help her out now. I'm sure we'll meet again eventually, but just in case…" he looked sad for a moment but then he smiled. "I'm glad we got to hang out for a while."

"Yeah…" he felt a heavy feeling in his chest. "It was fun. Thanks, Vincent."

They stood watching each other in silence for a long while before the rift began to waver. "Let's go Silver," Blaze said and entered the rift. He hesitated a moment before following.

Vincent inhaled deeply. "Okay…that felt awful." He looked up at the robot. "So, Razr…do you happen to know where a purple she-wolf is?" Razr wiggled its antennas around and turned to lead the way.

.

Silver looked around at the burning world. He certainly didn't miss this. He looked down at the emerald in his hand then felt a strong determination rising up. "Just in case Sonic doesn't get there in time…" he looked to Blaze. "We can use this to seal Iblis away right now."

"Then let's do it," she said just as determinedly.

.

"This is it," Silver said. They had gone all the way to the volcano and traveled through it to the other side. The world ahead was dark and all they could see for miles was an ocean of lava. Floating high above the lava was a massive ball of molten rock that gave off a powerful aura. "That's the core. The source of Iblis's power!"

"Be careful," Blaze said as he flew up to the ball.

He levitated himself above the core and held out his hands. The glow around his body became bright, every quill standing on end, as he used his power to encapsulate the core. The core trembled, resisting the crushing power. The glow grew brighter, and a high-pitched sound could now be heard. Silver gritted his teeth from the strain. The energy in the core was fighting back, but finally it caved and large cracks split across the core. With a gasp, Silver released the core and it crumbled away down into the lava below.

Quickly, Silver went back to land on the mountainside with Blaze. As the last pieces of the core fell into the lava, a massive beast suddenly burst from the lava with a furious roar. Iblis, bigger than ever before, bellowed loudly as it stood to tower over the mountain even at a distance.

"This is finally the end, Iblis!" Silver called. "It's over!"

Iblis let out another roar in response. It raised its four arms to its chest where a colossal ball of fire was forming. With another defiant bellow, it threw the ball at the mountain with great force.

Silver braced himself, feet apart and hands up, as the attack came. Using his psychokinesis, he managed to stop the attack just inches away from crashing into them and then launch it back at the monster.

Having thought that it had won, Iblis had turned away from the mountain and was shocked and furious when its own attack came back tenfold. With a shrieking roar, Iblis's body fell apart and it returned to its form of swirling flames.

Silver held out the Chaos Emerald. "Flames of Disaster! I offer my own body to seal you away!" The emerald pulled the flames forward but it backlashed and Silver winced. "Ack! Why won't it work?!"

"You're not a suitable host," Blaze looked at her hands. "But…"

"What are you doing?!" Silver said as she took the emerald from him.

"I was born with cursed flames," she held the emerald out and it glowered brightly. "I can seal Iblis within myself, but I won't be able to control all of it." She clenched her teeth as the flames spiraled into her. "You need to use Chaos Control to send us away!"

"What?! I- no!" He stepped back. "I can't do that to you!"

"There's no time for this!" she was struggling from the intense energy. "We agreed to save the world, no matter what."

"But…you're my friend, aren't you? You're all I have left now! What will I do without you?"

"You're…so naïve," the faintest smiled crossed her face. "But…I always kind of liked that about you."

He grabbed the emerald tensely. "C-Chaos Control!"

"Go Silver," Blaze said as she began to fade away. "Be happy."

Silver held back tears as he watched her disappear. Suddenly, shafts of soft warm light began to break through the dark clouds that were now dissipating to reveal a light blue sky. The fire and lava disappeared like magic to be replaced with bright green plants that covered the ruined world. Several small birds darted across the sky overhead, twittering excitedly.

Silver sniffed quietly. He felt a strange presence behind him and turned to look. There was nothing there, but for the faintest moment he could have sworn that he saw a white deer watching him.

**To be continued…**


	12. Chapter 11: Climax

Rouge was waiting under the shade of a shop canopy in New City. She wasn't surprised when Shadow and Violet suddenly appeared from seemingly nowhere. "You two are back sooner than I expected," she said. "Well, what did you find out?"

"We may have a way to seal Mephiles," Shadow said as he began to leave without a moment's hesitation.

"What?" she looked between the two of them. "Can one of you explain?"

"No time for that," he said. "Where is Mephiles?"

"Omega went after him. He said that Mephiles was heading towards that beach resort. Really, is no one going to explain?"

"The resort," Violet said. "He must be heading for the desert. I think there's a Chaos Emerald in the ruins."

"Oh great," a familiar voice complained. "Sand…"

"Vincent?" Violet quickly turned at the voice to find her brother approaching.

He held his hands up and shrugged. "I got some free time. Oh," he noticed them staring at the mantis behind him. "This is Razr-X. Don't worry, he's friendly."

Violet glanced back at Shadow who had stopped to wait impatiently. She looked back at the others and nodded. "Let's go already. If Mephiles gets that emerald then he'll be able to use it to fuse with Iblis and return to their original form." She looked to Rouge. "And I'll explain on the way."

"Finally," she said.

.

Omega had managed to corner Mephiles in a rocky cove. The robot unleashed a flurry of bullets that all hit the creature directly; however, the bullets only forced him back. They did not seem to cause any damage nor did they leave behind any wounds.

Mephiles flexed his claws and stared at the robot with red and green eyes. "This only proves that you were created to stop Shadow."

Omega stopped for a moment, confused, then realized what he was saying. Without responding, he continued his assault. Mephiles only laughed wickedly as he faded into a dark mist and disappeared.

"What just happened?" Rouge said as they all reached the cove in time to see Mephiles disappear. "What was he talking about?"

Omega was silent for a long moment as he sadly understood what Mephiles had meant. "Shadow… The future where you are sealed away… The one who defeats you and seals you away…is me."

There was a tense silence. "What?" Rouge broke the silence. "That's so unfair! Shadow's always there to defend the world! Why would they even think-"

"Eventually," Omega said. "When something becomes too powerful it is seen as a threat. And the world becomes its enemy."

"Hmph," Vincent exchanged a look with Violet. "If that's not the truest statement we've ever heard…"

There was another long silence until Shadow turned to head for the desert. "Shadow," Rouge said. "Even if the whole world turns against you, I will always be on your side. Remember that."

"So will I," Violet said with a sudden determination.

Vincent tilted his head at her. "Well, I don't really know you, but if my sister's willing to stand for you then I am too." He smiled.

"Right," Rouge stepped between the two wolves. "Just remember that Shadow."

He stopped for a second, "I will," then continued.

.

The group stood looking out at the desert ruins. The sun was slowly sinking below the sea of sand, giving everything a warm orange glow.

"I've been here already," Violet said. "I explored most of the ruins, at least the parts that aren't drowned in sand. But there's one door located behind a large rock formation that I couldn't break or open." She pointed at several pairs of tall sandstone pillars spread out across the desert, each was topped with a large stone bird. "Some of the locals mentioned a rumor that the door opens if you pass through each checkpoint in order."

"Then let's try that," Vincent said. "And if that doesn't work…"

"We'll blow it up," Shadow finished.

"Uh, yeah…anyways." He looked up at Razr. "You're big enough for us to ride, well besides Omega… How about giving us a lift through this sandy death trap?"

Razr twirled its antennas and crouched down for them. Violet, Shadow, and Rouge exchanged looks before joining Vincent on the back of the mantis. As soon as everyone had settled, Razr's wings shot out and began to beat rapidly with a strange fluttering noise.

Keeping itself only about a foot from the sand, Razr zoomed over the dunes and through each pair of pillars with ease. Omega kept pace at its side. A cloud of sand trailed behind the robots like smoke from a train.

"This isn't so bad," Rouge said over the noise.

"Then why are you trying to crush my insides?!" Violet shouted over her shoulder.

Rouge hadn't realized how tightly she had been clinging to her. "Oops, sorry!"

"There's the door," Violet pointed.

As they passed through the final pair of pillars, the door shifted and began to sink down into the sand. Behind it was a dark hallway. Razr folded its wings and walked carefully through the entrance. They remained on the mantis's back until they came to a tunnel lit with a green glow from the clusters of crystals all around. Below was a clear pool of water, and a bridge stretched all the way across to the other end.

"We'll need to be careful," Violet hopped off Razr's back. "There are probably traps."

Shadow led the way as they crossed the bridge. Vincent looked all around at the place with a curious expression while Rouge was eyeballing the clusters of crystals. Once they reached the other side, they found themselves in the typical sandstone chambers that the ruins consisted of. These rooms were different though. The walls were covered in strange carvings and sandstone statues acted as pillars to hold up the ceilings.

"Hey," Vincent stopped as a particular carving caught his eye. "Violet look at this! Don't these look like the drawings from the chamber of Crann na Beatha?"

"Cran…what?" Rouge tilted her head.

"It means Tree of Life," Violet said and walked over to the carvings to look. She carefully wiped dust from the wall to get a better look. "Yeah…it looks like the story of Artemis and Solaris."

The others went over to look as well. "Do you know it?" Rouge asked.

"Of course she does!" Vincent smiled. "All of our clan did."

Violet pointed at a carving of what appeared to be a large deer and a strange bird-like creature. Above the deer's antlers was a large circle and above the bird was the sun. "See here, this is showing the siblings Artemis and Solaris. Artemis is the spirit of the moon, Solaris is the sun, and both control light and dark, and life and death." She moved and pointed out another drawing. "This one shows how Solaris brought light and warmth to the world, and at night Artemis reflected that light through the darkness to guide spirits and dreams."

She followed the carvings and stopped at another familiar one. This one depicted the deer, again with the moon over its head, but this drawing was colored and both the moon and the deer were an eerie red color. "This…this one shows how, a very, very long time ago, the greed of humans angered Artemis. Both Artemis and the moon reflected a blood red color and Artemis began to destroy the world."

"The whole world?" Rouge stared up at the picture. "Just for that?"

"Well," Vincent chimed in. "The ancient humans tried to take Artemis's power by force."

"Then Artemis decided to take life by force," Violet added. "Artemis was able to give and take the life of any living thing simply by demanding it. It could even give eternal life…for a price. Anyways, our ancestor was one of the people who pleaded for Artemis to forgive the humans and stop its destruction of life. Artemis realized what it had done and vowed to never summon the blood moon again. As proof of that promise, Artemis removed that power from itself all together and planted it in the earth. That power became the Tree of Life, and Artemis appointed our ancestor as the guardian before returning to the moon to watch over the world."

"So," Rouge looked at her. "That's the thing your clan died protecting. But what happened to the tree?"

The siblings exchanged quick looks. "To make sure that the clan didn't die in vain," Violet said. "To make sure those humans that attacked us couldn't use the tree's power…our father split the tree's power and sealed it within Vincent and myself."

"Yeah," Vincent said. "We've been alive for almost a whole century, but we haven't aged a minute since that day. We're like demigods!"

Violet quickly examined the rest of the drawings. "There aren't any other carvings about Solaris. He must have been at peace all this time until that incident ten years ago. Let's keep moving. We don't have any more time."

.

The group finally came to a massive round chamber where a large alter stood at the back of the room with a set of stairs leading up to it. At the top of the alter was Mephiles. "I was expecting you here sooner," he turned to face them. In his hand was a yellow emerald. "But it's not too late, Shadow. You can join me and have your revenge upon this world."

"Don't try to deceive me," Shadow snapped. "You only desire destruction!"

"Very well." The floor beneath them was suddenly filled with a strange black and purple liquid. "Drown in darkness!" Mephiles flew up into the air then dove into the strange substance and vanished. Several areas of the floor churned like waves and huge beasts burst from the ground. "I am forever…" Mephiles' voice sounded from nowhere. "I am invincible!"

They had to dodge in opposite directions as the creatures blasted bright blue lasers across the ground. "What are those!?" Vincent shouted.

"They appear to be made up of many of the shadowy creatures that Mephiles summons," Omega said.

"Then they won't like Fire Rune!" Violet nodded to her brother.

Vincent smirked and summoned the flaming blade. He ran at one of the beasts and swung his sword as it went to grab him. The sword easily sliced through its arm and the creature dispersed with a growl.

Razr sliced away at another with its blade arms while Shadow and Omega attacked the last two.

Upon the creatures' defeat, the ground suddenly returned to normal and Mephiles shot out from the center of the floor. He landed softly on his feet and held up the Chaos Emerald. It glowered, and suddenly the room was filled with thousands upon thousands of him. "It's futile," his voice said from the crowd. "You are not strong enough to defeat me. Why bother defending a world that will betray you?"

"Is that so?" Shadow grabbed the golden ring around one of his wrists and twisted it. The ring clicked and fell to the ground with a clank. "If the world decides to turn against me…" he unlocked the second one and a massive burst of light and energy blasted from his body. "Then I will fight, as I always have!" He suddenly dashed forward, surrounded by the massive energy, and barreled his way through the crowd of shadows.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Just a random bit of info. As you may have noticed, Vincent's sword is called Fire Rune. Well, Violet's sword is called Frost Rune. Siblings with **

**sibling blades.**


	13. Chapter 12: End

**This is the final chapter. Now I can get to the story I REALLY want to do. Not sure what to title it though...**

* * *

Sonic and Elise had just exited the jungle and were crossing the forest clearing on their way back to Castle Town. "Thank you, um, again for rescuing me," Elise said.

"No problem," Sonic was walking ahead proudly. "Once we get you back to safety, I'll make sure Eggman doesn't bother you again."

Mephiles lightly landed several feet behind them. He flexed his claws as a blue energy began to form in his palm, then he held his hand out and a beam shot forth like a spear and passed completely through the blue hedgehog.

"Sonic!" Elise ran over to him as he collapsed to the ground. He wasn't breathing…there was no pulse. "No…" she could no longer keep sadness at bay. The only friend she had ever really known was laying lifeless before her. A sparkling tear slowly fell from her face.

Mephiles laughed loudly as a ball of fire appeared before them. He held up the purple Chaos Emerald. "Finally… Come, Iblis! Let us give back this world the suffering they gave us!" The emerald began to glow brightly.

.

The entire chamber was now free of Mephiles' clones, and the dark energy was no longer present. Shadow picked up his bracers and locked them back into place on his wrists.

"Did you see that!?" Vincent was ecstatic. "That was crazy!"

"Calm down," Violet told him.

"Woman!" he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "ARE YOU BLIND!? Your boyfriend is—OUCH!"

She had stomped on his foot. "Stop saying that!" she hissed through her teeth. She quickly looked around to find Rouge smirking at her. Violet wrinkled her nose and looked away.

Razr called everyone's attention by making a strange clicking noise then jerked its head at two Chaos Emeralds resting on the floor. As Shadow went to pick them up, the emeralds suddenly blasted a blinding light that forced everyone to shield their eyes.

.

With Iblis's fire above him, Mephiles rose up to the sky. All seven emeralds had appeared and circled them. The gray clouds mirrored the movement, swirling around as if forming a cyclone. The emeralds began to glow brighter and brighter, reaching a brilliantly intense white before an explosion of white light flew across the land.

Everyone was surprised to find themselves in a different place than just moments ago. They were all on a piece of concrete that appeared to floating in the sky. All around, above and below, the sky was filled with dark clouds and several other chunks of broken land and buildings.

"It looks like the world's falling apart," Vincent said.

Silver looked around. This was not where he was only seconds before. Recognizing the voice behind him he turned to see everyone looking just as confused as he was. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Silver!" Vincent was shocked.

"What's going on?" Tails asked.

"Seems Mephiles played us all for fools," Eggman said from nearby.

Tails exchanged a look with Knuckles then noticed Elise cradling the blue hedgehog. "Sonic?"

"Is he…?"

Amy dropped to her knees and cried. "No, Sonic!"

There was a long, sad silence all around. Vincent and Violet exchanged unsure glances but soft voices whispered between the siblings. _"Not yet…"_ Vincent tilted his head. What did that mean? Violet shook her head to show that she didn't know either.

"_Not yet…" _The voices whispered a little louder. Now, everyone present seemed to have heard them and looked around curiously.

"What is that?" Silver asked. The presence felt somehow familiar.

"Artemis…" Violet was stunned. "Artemis is speaking."

"You mean that spirit of the moon?" Rouge stared around, wide-eyed, trying to find the source of the voices.

"_I am always here…even in the darkest hour." _They listened intently to the voices that seemed to whisper all around them. Seven little orbs of soft white light appeared and bounced around lightly. _"Follow my guiding lights…find the Chaos Emeralds…gather them here…and call forth their blessing. They will answer…" _

"Are you…" Amy sniffed. "Saying they can save Sonic?"

"_Hurry… Solaris will consume all. The past…present…and future. I can only remain for a little while longer." _

"Everyone, pick an orb and follow it," Violet said. "We're running out of time!"

Each light flew off in a different direction, leaving a trail of misty white along its path. Everyone followed after them, having to jump or fly across stretches of void to reach other platforms or footholds. At the end of each trail, the light bounced excitedly around a Chaos Emerald and vanished as the gem was collected. The trails slowly faded away as everyone made their way back with their prizes.

They carefully placed the gems in a circle around Sonic's body then stepped back to watch. Elise held her hands together to pray. "Chaos Emeralds…gems of miracles. Please, heed my call. I wish to save this world…I wish to cleanse my father's sin…and I wish to talk with Sonic once again!"

The emeralds twinkled in response and began to float off the ground, bringing Sonic with them. Everyone watched intently as the emeralds began to twirl faster and faster until releasing a bright flash. When they looked again, the emeralds had seemed to disappear but floating with his feet just above the ground was a golden hedgehog with red eyes.

"Sonic?" Elise was dumbfounded.

He smiled. "Thank you, Elise." He looked up at a faint light shining above the clouds then looked to Shadow and Silver. "Let's finish this."

Shadow nodded and approached him. Silver watched for a moment then approached as well. Sonic held out his hands. They grabbed them, and with another flash of light Shadow and Silver had also changed. Everyone watched the three shoot up into the sky and through the clouds.

They broke through the dark clouds and found a massive golden creature waiting for them. It resembled a bird, with a body made of light, two arms, and two unattached wings that it held up defiantly. Within its center was a large red ball of energy that it seemed to be guarding with its claws.

"It appears to be protecting that core," Shadow said. "We'll have to break its defenses first."

"Leave that to me!" Silver said.

They all shot off in different directions around the creature. With a strange roar unlike any other, Solaris unleashed a barrage of spear-like lights that chased after the hedgehogs. Silver managed to catch one and struggled to throw it back. The spear pierced through one of Solaris's wings but the creature didn't seem fazed as it unleashed another assault.

Silver narrowly escaped being pierced by several of the lights, but felt as if something had pushed him out of harm's way. Shadow launched his own spear which seemed to momentarily stun Solaris, but it quickly recovered and focused its attacks on him instead. Despite all of their attacks that followed, Solaris barely appeared affected in any way. There appeared to be an impasse.

Suddenly, a strange sound reverberated across the sky. A sound that could only be described as an odd combination of an elk's cry with a dragon's growl. A brilliant white light appeared and shaped itself into a deer equal in size to that of Solaris's. Forced to take its arms away from its core, Solaris raised them to block the incoming impact. Solaris struggled; its claws were locked with the deer's massive set of antlers.

"The core is exposed!" Shadow shouted over the growls of the two beasts.

Sonic zoomed at the core like an arrow and struck it with a powerful force. Solaris roared as the core cracked and its body began to crumble. The deer, too, faded away.

The core began to burst and exploded, sending beams of bright light shooting in all directions across the sky. Suddenly, everything was dark, until a tiny white flame appeared to illuminate the surrounding people's faces.

Sonic, Shadow, and Silver had returned to normal, and they and everyone else were now collected around this tiny flame.

"_Look…" _a man's voice said. Elise recognized the sound from her childhood memory. _"This is Solaris. The flame of hope. When this flame grows large, our world will change. It will allow us to control time. To fix past mistakes. We could even see your mother again…"_

"Is this…" Elise looked around at the dark. "My memory?"

"No," Violet pointed at the little flame. "It's Solaris's."

"_Why won't it grow?" _the man's voice said again. _"Solaris, why won't you listen to me?"_

"_My Lord," _said a different voice. _"We may be able to force the flame to grow and obey…"_

"So," Vincent looked at the flame. "Solaris experienced a tragedy similar to what Artemis did so long ago. They wanted to use its power for something it knew was wrong, and when it wouldn't comply, they tried to take it by force. As a result, they sent Solaris into a fury and it vowed to take its revenge. Mephiles and Iblis were never truly bad, they're just damaged."

"So, what now?" Tails asked. "If Solaris is so angry, won't it try to destroy the world again?"

"But it can't be stopped," Knuckles grunted then looked to Vincent and Violet. "Unless you two know how to destroy it?"

Elise stared at the flame. "This flame is the essence of Solaris. If we put it out…it will have never existed. We won't have to worry, right?"

"Not exactly," Vincent said. "Solaris _is _the sun. Without the sun, nothing here would exist. Putting out the physical flame will reset time, so it will be like none of this ever happened, but…"

"Solaris is a god-like entity," Violet continued. "He will still exist, always. And even though the timeline will have disappeared, he will still remember."

"He'll just try again," Shadow finished.

"That's why we were sent here," Violet said. "Artemis foresaw this and sent us with these." She took her necklace in hand and showed them the clear stone hanging from it. "Once the flame is put out, Vincent and I will seal both halves of Solaris within these stones. The timeline will reset as if none of this ever happened. And, hopefully, Artemis' moonstones will help put those two at ease."

Silver looked at Vincent. "Does that mean we'll have never met?"

Vincent smiled sadly. "Yeah…I mean, since we have part of Artemis' power in us, Violet and I will remember." He perked up just a little. "Don't worry though! I'll find a way to get to you and we can be friends again."

"So, same goes for us then?" Rouge looked to Violet. "Well then, you better come find us too!"

Violet was surprised for moment then smiled softly. "Sure."

Elise looked to Sonic who smiled and nodded. She nodded too, and blew out the tiny flame, leaving everyone in the dark.

.

Vincent stretched with a loud, over exaggerated yawn. The orange stone hanging from his neck twinkled in the morning light. Violet joined him at the top of the grassy hill.

"_Greetings my cherished children…" _voices whispered gently all around them. _"You have done so well. But…"_

"Yeah," Vincent looked sad. "But now we have to go our separate ways for a while…" He looked sadly at his sister.

"_Yes…it is best to keep Iblis and Mephiles far away from each other…at least for now. But you will be reunited, I promise this to you." _There was a long silence, and they thought that Artemis had left until the voices spoke again. _"Ah…another thing. A gift to you. When you reunite with your lost friends…I will allow you to return their memories. You may return all of their memories, or only their memories of you, or none at all. It is your choice…I am curious to see what you will choose."_

"What?" Vincent said. "What do you mean? Which should we?"

The voices chuckled softly. _"I may guide you, but it is not I who determines your actions in the end. My precious guardians…I shall return soon. Until then…I will watch over you fondly."_

"Return soon?" Violet echoed, but the voices were silent and the presence had faded.

"Do you think Artemis is going to return to Earth?" Vincent asked.

"I knew it would eventually," she said, "but how soon is soon?"

He shrugged and they stood there in silence for a few minutes. "So, I guess this is farewell." Violet was silent and only stared at the ground. "Hey," Vincent smiled. "At least it's only for a little while. It's not forever!" He leaned forward to catch her eye. "I'm sure it'll pass really quick."

She shut her eyes tightly, trying not to cry. Ever since the destruction of their home, the two siblings had never been apart for more than a few days. It was too hard to say goodbye to the only person she had left.

Vincent hugged her tightly, fighting back his own tears. "Remember Violet, we're not alone. The moon's at our side. Besides, you have some interesting friends to find!"

Violet rubbed away the tears threatening to fall from her eyes and smiled. "I love you, Vincent."

"Love you too, sis. See you later."

They held hands and stared at each other for a long time before Vincent regretfully let go. Violet quietly watched him walk away for a while before turning and heading in the opposite direction. The purple and green stone hanging from her necklace sparkled as it bounced in the sunlight.

**The end…**

* * *

**The game is short okay? Lol, anyways the next (currently unnamed) story will be MUCH longer. Like multiple plots/stories in one and all original. I **

**just needed to write this one because it's how I always imagined it all starting out anyway. Also, Mephiles will play a role in the next story as well.**


End file.
